It Began One Night
by filesfreak4life
Summary: AU Leyton. Lucas saves Peyton one night at a bar in New York... it isn't love at first sight, but it is something...
1. It Began One Night

It was Friday night in New York City, and all she wanted was a nice drink before going home and curling up in bed. However the idiot that had sat down next to her was making it harder than she had hoped.

"So do you come here often?" he says, not at all hiding the fact that he is looking her up and down.

"No, actually."

"Well, you know I could show you the ropes... let me buy you a drink, I'll give you the tour, we'll see where it goes from there."

"No thank you, I'm fine."

"Come on baby, can't I buy you just one drink?"

The blond watched from afar as this guy hit on her unashamed, seeming to pull out every line that he could think of to get her to budge. It got to the point where he was just sad to say that the man was part of the male species. He obviously couldn't take a clue, and he felt bad for her.

He walked up behind her, placing his hands softly on her shoulders trying to not startle her in the dark bar. Her eyes instantly flew back to his and he swore they softened just a bit.

"Hey babe, I finally found you!" he says, winking at the green eyes that looked up at him.

"You're late! But I'm so glad you're here." she says, meaning every word of that last statement.

The ogre of a man that was sitting next to her took in the pair before him, young, cute, blond all together and absolutely sickening to him. "You could have told me that you were here to meet someone."

"And miss the joyous conversation of you trying to pick me up with every sleazy one liner that you could pull out of your ass. How unfortunate would that have been?" she says, with amusement in her voice.

The man scoffs before grabbing his drink off the bar and walking away from the two. He squeezes her shoulders a last time and waits as she spins around to face him.

"God, I'm glad you showed up..."

He puts out a hand to her, "Lucas Scott."

"Peyton Sawyer..."

"Now at risk of pulling the same shit as the last guy, can I buy you a drink Peyton Sawyer?"

"Oh, I see how this works, you save me... then you think that you can hit on me. Was the other guy just a plant for you?" she asks with an eyebrow raised that he finds adorable and attractive.

"My cousin Earl actually."

She just laughs and puts her face down, trying to hid the blush that had crept up to her cheeks before she had a chance to stop it.

"Well, thank you Lucas Scott, but I've already got my drink, and once it is gone, I'll be going as well."

"That's too bad..."

"And why is that?"

"Because it is early yet, and I just got here, and I was looking forward to talking to someone for a while."

"You've got until the last ice cube melts, and after that, you're on your own."

He laughs at her ability to combat his quirky remarks, reminding him of his best friend from home, who was the only one who held that ability.

"So what do you do, Scott?"

"I'm an author..."

She can't help but roll her eyes at that. It seems like everywhere you go in New York all the guys are authors, models, actors, or filmmakers. Couldn't anyone be honest and say that they were an undergrad or that they were working towards some other random goal, but at the time were a manager at The Gap. Would that make them be any less of a person?

"Right... and how many lovely poems have you published online today?"

"You don't believe me?"

"I'm sorry Luke, but every guy who tries to pick me up has a story about their famous but not really famous job, like an author or an actor. I have long since decided that those people aren't worth my time."

"Two novels. One of them was a best seller, and the second one tanked. Would you like to Google me?"

She accepted that challenge, realizing that if he had the balls to say it, then he must actually be somewhat telling the truth, "And since then? Or was the tanking more recent?"

"Since then, I've had some issues with writers block... not working to well for me."

"Wait... the rivercourt... basketball, right?" she says, finally vaguely remembering someone mentioning his novel to her.

He smiles at her familiarity with his first novel, "So you have read one of my books."

"No, actually, but my best friend has mentioned it in passing. It was one of a short list of books that she has actually read in her twenty three years of life. She said that one of the characters reminded her of herself, so she loved it."

"hmmm" he says, feeling good about proving her author/actor girl meeting tactic wrong, "What about you?"

"I own an art gallery just down the street a few blocks."

"Interesting..."

"Yeah, well, it won't get me on the bestseller list, but I like what I do for the most part."

"You don't sound too convinced."

"That's cause it's Friday... maybe by Monday I'll like my job again." she says laughing at the truth behind her words, "So, why are you here tonight?"

"Would you like the long version or the short version?"

She considers this for a moment, playing with the straw of her drink before turning back to him, "How about the short version, and I can ask you to expand on it?"

"Well then... in short, my day sucked."

"Well, okay then! Long version needed I guess."

"Basically this whole writer's block thing is really screwing me over, and my publisher wants another novel out of me, and it isn't there right now. My little brother is pissed at me because he wants me to come and see his championship game for basketball and I can't because of stupid meetings. The only up point of my day was when my five year old nephew called me to say that he lost his tooth."

"Nice..."

"And you? What brings you here tonight?"

"Short version or long version?"

"Haven't we learned from the last time?"

"Long version it is... I can't believe I'm telling this to some stranger I met in a bar... I love my job, but at the same time, it isn't what I'm supposed to be doing, it's just a cop out."

"What do you mean?" he asks with a genuine look of concern placed on his features, a look that made her okay with telling her life story to a stranger in a bar.

"After I graduated high school..."

"Which was?"

"Five Years ago... sly by the way..." she says at his ability to figure out her age without actually asking her outright. "Anyways, I got an internship at Sire Records in Los Angeles. I'm a music buff to say the least and I wanted to change the music industry. Three years in, I was still low man on the totem pole and forced to watch bimbos with no talent and no meaning behind their music get signed. And when my boss asked me to drop a button to get into a meeting, I quit."

"Wow... and how did you end up here then, with an art gallery."

"My other hobby is drawing... something I've done since forever, so my best friend, who owns a pretty successful clothing line decided to underwrite my opening an art gallery, and I've been here ever since."

"Okay..." he says, curious as to why she explained all of that, but not complaining at the glimpse into her past that it gave him.

"And what does this have to do with anything regarding why I'm here?" she asks, continuing after he nods, "It's not what I'm supposed to be doing, and I know that. I want back into music, but I don't want it to suck the life out of me like it did when I was in LA. I want to find artists who are passionate about what they do, and not in it just to make money. I want to find people whose music is going to mean something to someone, and I don't think I'm ever going to be able to do that."

"Why?" he asks, challenging her thoughts.

"Because major labels are in it for the money and for the business... they don't care about the people." she finally says after thinking it through, twisting the straw around her drink that has remained untouched since he came into the picture.

"Peyton?"

"Yes?"

"I know that I don't know you very well, but can I suggest something?"

"As long as this isn't some chance to try and get me to sleep with you, you can--"

"Start your own label." he says, cutting her off to show her that he had dropped the picking her up goal the second they started really talking. Well, he hadn't dropped it, but he was far more interested in her person than he had been with anyone else in a long time, so at least he could talk to the beautiful woman. If it went anywhere else it would just be a bit of a bonus.

"What?"

"Your friend with the clothing line, have her invest in your own label. You could keep your art gallery so you'd still have income and that has to be large enough to have an office, and you could work from there on getting new bands and things like that. And in New York there are plenty of studios that you could get artists into, I'm sure. Just try it. You never know what can happen..."

She considers what he said for a moment, a little amazed that he came up with a plan that she herself had been toying with for quite some time. Without over analyzing it, she leaned over an brushed her lips across his cheek.

He pulled back in surprise, a smile on his face. "What was that for?"

"For making me realize that the thought mulling around in my brain for the past year isn't completely stupid. You kind of saved me with that."

"Well, if you wanted to be fair, I saved you a little bit when I came over here in the first place, so technically, you owe..." he trails off when he sees her eyebrow raised and an amused smirk on her face, "not working?"

"Nope."

They sit for a few more minutes, listening to the live music, sharing a few casual glances at the other before she stands, grabbing her coat to leave.

"You didn't finish your drink..."

"I said you had until the last ice cube melted, and that was about a half hour ago, so even that was pushing your luck."

"So..."

"Don't be a stranger Lucas Scott..." she says casually, walking away from him.

He stood there for a few moments, watching her leave the bar, and fully mesmerized by the conversation they just had. Being the cheesy writer that he was, he could say that it was love at first sight, but he wasn't ready for that yet. However, he couldn't put to words what he was feeling about the blond, curly haired beauty.

Peyton was having the same feelings as she walked the short two blocks to her shared apartment. Well, she shouldn't say apartment, because what she and Brooke lived in was basically a floor of an apartment complex. As she walked in the door, with a smile on her face, she was met by her best friend, who instantly took in her mood.

"What's with the smile P. Sawyer?"

"What would you say to helping me start my own record label? Keep the gallery, but try to start a label on the side."

"I'd ask how much you wanted."

"Really?"

"Honestly, I've been waiting for you to either jump on a plane back to L.A. Or for you to suggest something like this... what made the switch flip?"

"I've been mulling it around in my head for awhile, but someone made me realize that it wasn't as crazy as I thought it might be."

Taking in her best friend's still smiling face, she had to ask, "is this a boy someone?"

"I'm tired... I think I'm going to go in to bed." she says, walking away, leaving Brooke in the kitchen.

"Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer, I want details!!!" Brooke screamed after her.

"You'll get details when there are details to share!" she screams back, putting her back against the door and taking a minute to let the ideas fly around in her head.

Moments later, she changes into pajamas and reaches under her bed to pull out a sketch book that she hid there. Opening to a worn page that had gotten a lot of use the past year, she smiled.

"Red Bedroom Records... thank you Lucas Scott."

–

Okay, so I'm toying with this idea in my head, and I doubt that anyone will figure out where I'm going with this, but we'll see. I hope you liked it.

In case you were wondering, just take everything that happened in the show and remove Brooke and Peyton. Brooke and Peyton have done everything from the show, just in a different place. Naley and Jamie are still there, Nathan is in the NBA. Dan still killed Keith, but is still actually in prison. Lucas' first book was still about high school, but not about Peyton, and his second tanked like in the show. Lindsay is still his editor, but there is no and will be no romantic relationship there. Hmm... any other questions?? Hopefully I'll be able to fill in the gaps!!!

Let me know what you are thinking by reviewing!!!!


	2. The First of Many Nights

Five days later, she was standing in her gallery office, toying with a final logo for the record label that she and her best friend decided was the best thing that Peyton could do. She smiled, thinking about the possibilities of the whole thing... getting to do with it what she wanted and not having to answer to someone else about anything.

"Peyton?" One of her employees calls from the doorway. "There is someone here for you."

"Okay, I'll be right out." she says, snapping out of her momentary daydream, and making her way to the main part of the gallery.

"Peyton Sawyer." he says, holding out flowers for her.

She smiles, taking the flowers with a blush in her cheeks, "Lucas Scott."

"You said not to be a stranger..." he says, catching the kink in her brow and the smirk on her face.

"I also didn't tell you how to find me..." she says and he smiles. "So how did you..."

"Do you want the suave version or the dorky version?"

"Suave first, and we'll see if that impresses me."

"I just happened to be walking by and noticed this small art gallery and knew that it had to be yours, so I ran to the nearest flower shop and then came back to sweep you off your feet."

She narrows her eyes at him, showing her disbelief at that particular reason for him being in front of her right now.

"Or... I figured out how many galleries there were in this area, and there were a lot, and I called every one of them asking if Peyton Sawyer worked there until I found this one, and then I walked by it about fifty times before deciding to go get you flowers, and then I walked by another fifty times before walking in and asking someone if I could see you." he finally admits, looking down at his feet, unable to actually reach her eyes after his sheepish confession.

When he finally did look up, all he saw was her smile and the way her eyes twinkled as she glanced between him and the flowers she now held in her hand.

"And what exactly were you hoping to get out of this little meeting Lucas?"

"I wanted to ask you out to dinner on Friday night. I could pick you up here after you were done with work."

She considered it for a moment before nodding and making plans to see him at eight that night. Of course, to her luck, her best friend happened to be walking in right as Lucas was getting ready to walk out.

"P. Sawyer!" Brooke says, making a loud entrance as always.

Peyton looked to Brooke and then back at Lucas, "I'll see you then?"

"Yeah," he says, stepping away from her and walking to the door before turning back. "Hey Peyton?"

She looks away from her curious friend back towards Lucas.

"How's the record label?" he asks with a smirk.

"How's the writer's block?" she counters, smiling as she watches him shake his head and walk out the door and onto the street.

She allowed herself a moment of girlish indulgence as she smiled to herself. He had to have known that she would get into that the second she left him that night, and for some reason that stirred up something in her.

Of course, she was quickly brought back down to earth by her friend's hand on her shoulder, "THAT was the someone from Friday night?"

"Maybe..."

"and you didn't tell me that you made plans with the boy, let alone told him where you worked."

"I didn't... he called all the galleries looking for me."

"SHUT UP! He did not!"

She nods, scrunching up her nose and smiling at the cuteness of his grand gesture.

"So what's next? Are you guys going out? When are you going to see him again? What are you going to wear? How old is he? What does he do?"

"Brooke! Woah! We're going to dinner on Friday!"

"And...."

"I don't know what I'm going to wear yet, he's 23, and he's an author."

"An author? Like an actual author?"

"Ravens..."

"That's Lucas Scott?"

"The one and only according to Google."

"Peyton Sawyer! You Googled him....?" she says with the innuendo present in her tone.

"Oh Brooke, don't make that sound dirty. I was curious."

"This is going to be interesting..." she says, walking back into Peyton's office.

As Friday approached she found herself genuinely excited about the date, feeling like she had actually met someone interesting for a change. Even if it didn't go anywhere, she would have had a few stimulating conversations with a member of the opposite sex, and that was pretty good.

That evening, she was finishing up with customers when he walked in. Charcoal gray pants with an ice blue shirt was definitely enough to impress her, her eyes catching his as she put up a signal that told him that she would be just one more minute.

He took in her animation in talking about the artwork that she was showing, a smile every now and then bordered with serious eyes and concentrated looks. She was someone easy to watch, and her attire was making it all the more easy. Her knee length black skirt flared out, but hugged all the places it should, and her cranberry tank top with a dark vest over top of it also hugged all the right places.

She was soon walking over to him, her look explaining that it might be a bit longer, "I'm sorry.... they are so close to buying one of these pieces. I'll just be a few more minutes."

"Peyton, it's fine, I can wait."

"I'm really sorry. Why don't you look around while you're waiting, it'll make the time pass."

"You're an artist on the side, do you have anything here?"

"Maybe..." she says, walking away from him to get back to the undecided couple.

Thirty minutes later the couple was out the door, and he found himself standing in front of a painting that had taken his breath away. It was an oil showing what seemed a passage of time, with people on a bright and sunny beach at high tide fading into a beach strewn with sunglasses and towels that were seemingly left behind.

"Did you find one that you liked?" she asked, approaching him after settling everything in her office and locking the door behind the couple.

"This one... it's like I don't know. It's like a new beginning, but at the same time, something is being left behind, going away. I keep coming back to it, but you don't have any labels, so I don't know it's name or artist."

"Fading Summer." she says casually.

"That's exactly what that is... wow."

She didn't say anything, just watching him take in the art work with a creased brow and pursed lips. It was as if the painting was the most important thing in the world to him at the moment.

"And the artist?" he asks, without taking his eyes away.

She glances at the painting again, and then makes a move towards the door, "Let's go eat..."

He meets her eyes then, knowing instantly that she just confessed who the artist was by her lack of answer. It doesn't surprise him that she could produce something like that, but it does take his breath away thinking about the beautiful painting that he kept being drawn to. He chooses to drop the line of questioning, placing a hand on her lower back and guiding her to the doorway.

When they arrive at the restaurant neither really acknowledges the fact that they haven't really said anything more than what was said in the gallery to each other. The walk from her gallery to the small restaurant they were dining at was spent in companionable silence, with him placing a gentle hand on her arm or back every now and then to guide her through the other pedestrians.

It wasn't until they were being seated and he pulled out her chair that he leaned in to whisper in her ear, "you look absolutely beautiful tonight."

She says nothing, somehow knowing that he just wanted to make the comment and not draw any attention to it. Instead she grabs her menu and selects her meal of the evening. Waiting for the waiter was still in silence. It was an easy silence though, not holding any expectation for coming out of it, and now awkward like it should have been with two people that barely knew each other.

After the waiter took their order though, she began to get curious, "So, where are you from Lucas Scott?"

"Tree Hill, North Carolina... it's a small town right along one of the rivers."

"I've heard of it."

"You have not..." he says, knowing that nobody has ever heard of the place he calls home.

"Wilmington, North Carolina, born and raised. You lived about an hour from me."

"Really?"

"Guess so."

"And then you were in Los Angeles and now you're in New York."

"You went from Tree Hill to Greensburo to New York, yes?" she says, hoping that he gets the admission.

"Why Peyton Sawyer did you Google me?"

"Maybe I did..."

"And how do I look?" he asks, trying to not sound too excited at the idea of her actually taking that much of an interest in him.

"Not too bad Scott... not too bad."

"Anything that you need to get clarification on?"

"Ravens... was it all true?"

"What do you mean?"

"Raised by a single mom, jack ass of a father, half brother who you hated until he married your best friend, basketball was your life, school shootings, murders, and whatnot... or was that just to sell books?" she asks, bringing up everything that she could think of that was in his first novel.

"Every word..." he says, and then silence falls on the table.

She studied his reaction to her question, mentally slapping herself for being so forward. There was a line that she had crossed, and she didn't know exactly where to go from there.

Thankfully, the waiter arrived with their food to break up the first awkward silence of the evening.

As they started to eat, she would glance up at him every now and then, finally not being able to take it any more, "I'm sorry..."

"About what?" he asks, shrugging.

"I shouldn't have made light of what you've gone through. I honestly thought that it was more fiction than fact."

"Peyton, you didn't know... and not a lot of people do."

"Why publish something with so much personal pain in it?"

"You read it?"

"I had some time on my hands between last Friday and today."

He smirks at that admission, but still wanting to get her at ease about bringing up his past problems, "There has been a lot of shit in my life that has sucked. Yeah, I was raised by a single mom, but she was the best damn mom a kid could have. My father was a jackass who, as it turned out, killed my Uncle Keith during a school shooting that to this day still gives me and my brother nightmares. My brother and I are the best of friends now, but we hated each other before that to the point that he was actually using my best friend, who is now his wife, to get back at me in the beginning. Yes they got married and had a baby all before we graduated high school, and in all honesty, I don't think that I've ever seen a stronger marriage because of it. My book was a way to express all those things that didn't make sense but somehow worked out in the end."

"And that surely matters to someone..."

"Does it?"

"I think it does... hell, I've had plenty of crap happen to me too, and if I could let everyone know about it and tell them that I'm okay now in print, then I probably would too."

"A fading summer... good memory or bad memory?"

"The summer between my junior and senior year was something that I was looking forward to. Most of my friends were gone, so I didn't have to deal with their drama, and I had planned on spending the entire time at the beach. It was going to be wonderful. It got taken away when a woman came to my door the first week claiming to be my mother."

"How does that..." he starts asking, confused as to how someone could not know who their mother was.

"My mom actually died when I was 8, but as it turns out after I contacted my dad and told him to come home, I was adopted. The woman who was on my porch was my biological mother."

"And where did you go from there?" he asks, getting more curious about a past that was as filled with heartbreak as his own.

"From there I got to know her, but she died just a few months later from breast cancer."

"What about your birth father?"

"... a mystery for another evening. But the painting was done as a result of that... all the hopes I had for the summer all faded away..." she says, clicking her tongue at him.

They finished their meal talking about the stories that shaped their past, and all the things they have going on now in the present. The future, they decided would be saved for next time.

He walked her home that evening after thoroughly enjoying himself. It seemed as if something had been lifted off of his shoulders. It was someone new in his life that took in everything from his past, processed it, and accepted it with ease. She too had her rough story, and was amazed that he accepted it the way he did as well.

"Wednesday." he says, after they had been standing at the door to her apartment complex for a while.

"hmmm?" she replies, not knowing the question she was supposed to gather out of that statement.

"Are you at work?"

"Always...."

"Well, then I've got a meeting in the area for my next novel, and I'm going to bring you lunch."

"And why would you do that?"

"Because I think you might be the reason I'm writing again, so I'm thanking you, and because I like talking with you Peyton."

She was taken aback for a moment when he declared that she could be the reason why he was writing again, but instead accepted his offer for lunch that week.

When he asked if he could kiss her, she said yes, and the two stood at her door for a few minutes, exchanging a few chaste kisses, blushing and glancing at each other shyly after doing so. They knew that there was something there. They knew, but they didn't know how powerful and meaningful it would be.

–

Okay, so the next chapter is going to fast forward a few months. I hope that you all are enjoying this. I'll be bringing in the main reason for the story withing the next few chapters, so be prepared!!

Reviews are always welcome!!!!


	3. A Night to Remember

She unlocked her apartment door and the two of them hung up their coats. He moved to the couch to sit while she headed towards the kitchen.

"Coffee?" she asks, turning to him from her spot in front of the coffee maker.

"That would be wonderful." he says, and then proceeds to watch her.

She had taken her heels off at the door and he takes in how her foot lifts up to scratch the itch on her opposite calf. Setting the foot back down she shifts her weight, standing with a hand on her hip and another running through her hair.

The past two months had been amazing. They've taken things slowly, somehow understanding that what they were doing was different than anything they had done before. Conversations they had were still interesting, whether they are sharing something about their past or talking about her new label and his new novel.

The novel was somewhat of a sore spot with her, because while he fully admitted that she was the one who got him writing again, he wouldn't let her set her eyes on a word. They talked about the meetings and release dates and book tours, but he wouldn't divulge any information about the book's content.

As he watched her though, practically mesmerized, he finally admits it, "It's about you... us really."

"What?" she says, confused by the statement, and walking into the living room with coffee for the pair.

"The novel I've been working on... it's you..."

"Lucas." she says, a bit breathlessly.

"I know that we've been taking this slow, and I wouldn't have it any other way... but... and I'm not saying anything here... I'm falling for you Peyton. I'm pretty sure I've been falling since I saved you from that sleaze ball in the bar two months ago. But you really have been the best thing to happen to me in such a long time, and I want you to know that."

She moves from her spot on the chair opposite him to sit at his side. Taking his face in her hands, all she can do is drop a sweet kiss on his lips.

Of course the sweet kisses that they both started, was quickly leading to something else entirely as he pulled her onto his lap and their kisses deepened.

"Brooke?" he asks, having a feeling that he knew where this was leading.

"Gone for the evening." she says, trying to catch her breath.

Pressing his lips to hers again, they drink each other in for a while longer, before he breaks them again, "Come home with me next weekend?"

"What?"

"Next weekend, will you come home with me and meet everybody?"

"Lucas..."

"Don't try to tell me that you don't want to or make excuses, cause I won't accept any." he interrupts, placing a finger across her now swollen lips.

"Yes I will... and I was going to say that this is totally not the time to bring up me meeting your mother."

"Oh... good point." he says, shaking his head and looking down for a moment.

"So, do you want a tour of the apartment?"

"You have already given me a..." he trails off as he catches the gleam in her eye. "a tour would be lovely. Where's our first stop?"

She just grabs his hand, gliding him into the bedroom, a very off limits place for both of them.

They had waited, wanting to keep what they had untainted by the baggage that comes with having sex. It seemed though that they were both on the same page that evening as they started to finish what began in the living room.

"I'm falling for you too." she half says and half moans out as he distracts her with something entirely not PG rated.

As the pair continued to mesh together, they hadn't heard the front door open. Stuck in the heat of the moment, the pair also didn't realize that the bedroom door had opened as well.

"Oh MY GOD!" Brooke screams, and Lucas falls on top of Peyton in an attempt to conceal what they were doing. "I'm so sorry! I just wanted to ask...."

"BROOKE!" Peyton screams from underneath her new lover.

"OH, right! I'm sorry!" she says, turning away and walking out the door.

They both looked at each other, smiling and had to start laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. A few seconds later, when they started to attempt to salvage the moment, the door flung open again, "And P. Sawyer, after he leaves, I expect details!"

"BROOKE!" they both scream at her again, breaking again into a fit of laughter.

He, however didn't leave that evening, and they got to have their moment... a few times actually.

That morning as the couple was saying goodbye Brooke walked into the kitchen, glancing at the pair from afar. It was good to see Peyton that happy, and she was more than excited for her finding someone that was as great as Lucas and someone who could actually challenge her like he did. She still loved to poke fun at the two of them though, and when he leaned in to kiss her goodbye in the open doorway, Brooke called out, "I KNOW the two of you did enough of that last night, now let my best friend eat some breakfast, so she can have some strength for next time."

Lucas just blushed, not even being able to meet the eyes of his girlfriend's best friend. "Bye Peyton."

"See you tomorrow?"

"Dinner at my place at seven?"

She nods, leaning in to kiss him again before watching him walk away and closing the door behind him.

As she sat down at the kitchen counter, she waited for Brooke to start in with her crazy personal questions, asking for a play by play of the details of what transpired the night before. After a few minutes of silence though, she couldn't take it anymore, "Aren't you going to ask?"

"Ask what?" she says innocently.

"What went on last night, how he was, how it was, and all those other crazy questions that you always have to know about."

"OH, I get it... yeah, I don't need to ask."

She doesn't reply to the comment, but gives her best friend and roommate a questioning glance.

"Honey, first of all, I walked in on what went on last night. Secondly, I know that you're in love with the guy, and with how you were screaming in there, I'm pretty sure I know how good he is." she says simply, walking away, leaving Peyton in the kitchen with her mouth wide open and her face bright red.

"Next time you and Luke have a sleepover, make sure it is when you have laryngitis or at least tell me so I can sleep on the other side of the apartment... scratch that... the other side of the city." Brooke adds, peeking her head around the corner.

Absolutely mortified, Peyton rests her head on the kitchen counter after her best friend walks out of the room. After the blush had left her cheeks though, she sat back up, grabbing hold of the coffee cup in front of her and letting the smallest of smiles creep up to her face.

–

The week was a long one, and while she was very happy to get a small vacation from all the craziness, she had nothing but nerves when it came to going home with Lucas this weekend. So when he pulled up in his car, all she could do was blurt out some excuse to run back upstairs for a moment.

"I can't do this!" she screams, entering the apartment to find Brooke sitting in the kitchen sketching out what was supposed to be her next line.

"You can't do what?"

"I can't go with him. I can't meet his family! We've only been dating for like two months, and that is way too soon to meet the guy's family right? They're not going to like me. They're going to think that I'm weird or something. And what happens if his best friend hates me? If you hated him then I probably wouldn't have..."

"PEYTON!" Brooke screams, trying to get Peyton out of her line of thought. "You _can _do this, and considering you and Lucas, this isn't too soon. They aren't going to think that you're weird, they're going to love you. And his best friend is going to adore you..."

"Really?"

She gets up and pulls her in for a hug, "I know these things P. Sawyer, or else I couldn't be your best friend. Now you need to get downstairs so you can be ready when Luke gets here."

"He's already here..."

"And you left him down there?"

"I told him that I forgot my hair brush."

Brooke raises an eyebrow at that, "Original..."

"Shut up, it was momentary panic..."

After another round of goodbyes, Peyton gets back downstairs to a waiting Lucas, who had already put her luggage in the back seat of his car.

He laughs when she climbs in, "No hair brush?", he asks, knowing that she just needed a moment to freak out with Brooke.

"Shut up."

All along the drive they talked about what it was like growing up in their two smaller towns. As they got closer to Tree Hill, she had a moment of realization.

"I've driven this before..." she says, suddenly very attentive to what was going outside the window.

"Well, this is part of the stretch that leads up to Wilmington from Tree Hill"

"Did you guys ever have a basketball tournament up here your senior year?"

"Yes actually, it was one of the last times that I was able to play the whole game, why? And how did you know that?"

"Okay, promise me you won't laugh..." she says, now turning to face him.

He crosses his heart and meets her eyes for a moment before turning back to the road.

"I was a cheerleader."

"You were not!"

"That little bit of my life was courtesy of Brooke Davis, but that is so not the point. Lucas, you guys were blue and white, right?"

"And black... but yeah. Peyton where are you going with this?"

"Our school colors were red and yellow...the Wasps..." she says, trying to jog his memory.

He sits for a moment, trying to realize what she was getting at when it hits him, "We beat you by two points...at the buzzer"

"Saddest game in the history of Wilmington basketball..."

"You were there? We were there at the same time?"

"I guess so..."

"Well, if that doesn't tell us it's fate then I don't know what does."

She smiles, laughing at the thought of the two of them catching each other's eyes when they were just in high school. It was funny how things like that happened in life, realizing that the person you were with has actually seen other glimpses of your life without you realizing it.

When they finally pulled into town, Lucas started giving Peyton the drive by tour, showing his mom's cafe and TRIC, the high school, and the rivercourt. When they got to his mom's house, the older woman was waiting on the front porch swing with a tea in her hand and a five year old on her lap.

"Lucas!!!!!" screams the little girl, running at his legs.

He grabs her quickly off the ground, spinning her around and kissing her forehead, "I missed you little Lily!"

"We've been gone a long time!"

"Not that long, but too long for me!" he says, hugging her again, and then placing her on the ground.

"Who's that?" she asks, pointing towards Peyton, who had stepped out of the car and over to where the two siblings stood.

Before he could answer her, his mom came in and swept her back up and into her arms, "That's Peyton silly Lily... remember how I told you that Lucas was bringing his girlfriend to meet us this weekend. She's the one who is the really good artist that I said would maybe finger paint with you."

"Oh! She's pretty..." Lily says, burying her head in her mother's shoulder.

"That she is." Karen says, walking up to where Peyton stood and putting a hand out to shake, "I would hug you, but my arms are full... it is _so_ nice to meet you. You are all that I hear about when I talk to Lucas."

"Only good things, I hope." Peyton says, still a little nervous to be standing in his childhood driveway talking with his mother and sister.

"I haven't found any bad yet," he says, pulling her next to him, the pair turning to meet each other's eyes.

His mother takes in the scene, her smiling son with a beautiful woman at his side. It was the first time in a long time that he looked really happy, and that was good enough for her. However, the mother in her, of course wanted to know more about the woman who had so quickly stolen her son's heart.

–

Okay, so I wanted to toy a bit at the fate thing adding in the little basketball glimpse for them... Next we have the meeting of the family.... Haley, Jamie, Nathan, and whatnot.... good times. So, what are we thinking so far? Are we liking it? The meat of the story and why I wrote it hasn't even hit yet, so it is going to be interesting to see how you react to what I decided to do... good times. Well... not good times... but that is for my brain to know, and you to eventually find out! Hopefully you are enjoying the fluff for right now though!

Reviews make me happy, so if you would like, let me know what you're thinking!


	4. Family Night

After getting their things settled in, the adults sat down in the living room with some sweet tea while Lily ran into her room to grab a few things to amaze the adults with.

"Where's Andy?" Lucas asks, curious to know where his mother's boyfriend was.

"I sent him out to get a few things for dinner and a couple bottles of wine. I have a feeling that when Nate and Haley are over tomorrow, we'll be up for a while, grilling Peyton for details about your relationship, so I figured that I would be prepared."

"Thank you for letting me come and visit Karen, it's nice of you to open up your home."

"Oh, honey, anything to get my baby boy home and happy. I've taken care of the home, and you've obviously taken care of the happy."

Peyton blushes, glad to know that she was really making Lucas happy.

"So how is this record label going for you? Lucas said that you were really working hard at it. He said you had a few bands that you were going to get into the studio soon, right?"

She looks to Lucas then, smiling at the fact that he obviously paid attention to the things she said, but also that he felt it important enough to share with his mother.

"Yeah, I've got a few great bands that I want to see do some stuff before signing them on and starting to promote what they are doing. I think that I've got a long way to go, but I have plenty of support around me." she says, winking at the boy next to her.

"Well, you know that I do own the local club, so if you ever need a place to try someone out for a live audience this is the place."

"Definitely! Lucas told me that you were quite the business savvy woman, setting up TRIC and the cafe... I don't know how you did it."

With that comment, Karen reaches across and pats her son on the knee, "I had a lot of support around me to."

Wanting to continue the conversation, Peyton started to ask about the club when she was interrupted by a five year old climbing into her lap.

"Can I sit here?" she asks, looking up at who she considered her new friend.

"Yes, you may." Peyton says, laughing at the little girl sitting in her lap with a bunch of papers in her hands, "Now what do you have here?"

"They are my drawings and my paintings..."

"Oh, wow! I might have to see if I can put some of these up in my gallery."

"What's a gallery?"

"It is a place where people put up their beautiful art work so people can look at it and then buy it if they would like."

"Oh, can I come see your gallery?" she asks, looking first to Peyton and then to her mother.

"Maybe someday you will, but for now, why don't you show me these pictures of yours." Peyton replies, patting her hand on the stack of papers.

Lucas and Karen simply watched for a moment while Lily showed Peyton her artwork, asking her plenty of questions on whether or not Peyton thought they were pretty. Peyton would go on and on about how beautiful the five year old art was and would explain something about how she liked the colors or some other detail. It made Lucas smile, seeing how at ease Peyton was with his little sister and how quickly Lily had warmed up to her.

He was broken out of his reverie when his mother stood up and tapped him on the shoulder, gesturing that they should leave the pair alone for a little while.

"We're going to go outside and wait for Andy. You be good in here with Peyton, Lily."

"I will!" she says, glancing up at her mother as Peyton does the same.

Once out on the porch the two take their places on the stairs leading up to the house, a place that had seen many a talk between the pair. They sit in silence for a moment, just taking in the silence, her knowing that Lucas doesn't get to hear a lot of silence in his life living in the big city.

After a while though, she breaks the silence, "I like her."

"I'm quite fond of her myself." he says, nodding at his mother and laughing.

"She's obviously great with children, which is certainly a plus for the future, and she's quite pretty."

"The future?" he asks, squinting his eyes her way.

"Yes, the future. Don't think that since I've been away sailing around the world and you've been off in New York, that I've forgotten how to read my baby boy. You love her."

"We've been dating for two months, ma."

"Doesn't matter... look at Nathan and Haley... or the opposite, look at me and Keith... Whether two months or nearly twenty years... you just have to admit it to yourself."

"Yeah, well... she is pretty amazing. She's just so smart and she has such a passion for certain things. It's inspiring, and she doesn't even realize it. She doubts herself all the time, but at the same time is one of the most confident women that I've ever met."

"And you don't love her?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow.

"No, I do, I just..." he stops, noticing the big smile on his mother's face telling him that he did exactly what she wanted him to do.

He was about to try to explain it as a slip of the tongue when Andy's SUV pulled into the driveway and the man stepped out.

"Lucas! How are you?" he says, pulling Luke in for a hug, and patting him on the back.

"I'm good, Andy. How are you? Taking care of my mom and my little sister?"

"I hope so..." he says, pulling Karen to his side.

Turning back to Lucas again, he gestures towards the truck, "Come on, let's get the groceries out of the car and then we can meet this Peyton girl that you've fallen madly in love with."

All Karen can do is laugh, as Lucas drops his mouth open in protest, shaking his head.

"Can't deny it any more, Lucas Scott... we know you." his mom says, passing by him with a bag in her hand and on the way into the house.

As the group sat down for dinner, it was clear that the bond between Peyton and Lily couldn't be broken, as the little girl insisted that she sit by the curly blond. The adults laughed and they scooted chairs around so the two could sit next to each other.

"So, how did the two of you meet?" Andy asks.

"He saved me from some random guy at a club in New York, we talked, and then Mr. romantic over here decides to call all the art galleries in the city to find me, bringing me flowers. It was sweet. So when he asked me to dinner I had to say yes."

"Good job my man." Andy says to Lucas, patting him on the back. "He obviously knows a good catch when he sees one."

"Thank you... now tell me about you guys. Where have you been sailing lately?"

"We have been everywhere it seems... Europe, the Caribbean, Australia... It's been wonderful."

"Wow! I would love to just get out of New York for like a week. The farthest from home I've been is LA, and that ended up just being all work and no fun."

"Then this summer we should all go somewhere fun for a while. You and Lucas can surely take a few days off, right?"

"The book tour should be going on a break for a month during the summer, so I would be in for it, Peyton?"

She looks at him, smiling because they were talking about something that was happening months down the road and still as confident as anything that they were going to be together and perfectly fine. "I'm definitely in. Hopefully I will have signed a few bands and could take some time away."

"Then that's settled, it'll be a nice family vacation!" Karen says, winking in Peyton's direction and sending butterflies flying in her stomach at the use of the word family.

They finished dinner, whereupon Lily insisted that she get ice cream with her big brother. So, Lucas and Peyton took her for frozen custard and walked with her down by the riverside. By the time they had driven home, it was pretty late and Lily was nearly asleep.

"I've got her." Lucas says, getting out of the car and lifting his sister from the back seat, Peyton closing the door softly behind him.

"She's pretty tired."

"I think the stop at the riverwalk did her in."

Peyton laughs as they walk in the door and Karen catches the sight of her son with his little sister slumped on his shoulder and his girlfriend carrying a pink hello kitty backpack.

"Did she fall asleep on you guys?" Karen asks.

"She started falling asleep on the ride home after we took a walk and got our ice cream." Peyton responds with a smile on her face.

"I'm going to go put her down in her bed." Luke says, starting to walk down the hallway.

"Wait." Lily says sleepily, lifting her head up from her brother's shoulder and looking around the room for something. "Peyton?"

"Yeah sweetie?" Peyton says, walking towards the little girl and whispering softly.

"Are you going to be here tomorrow?" she asks with all the innocence of a five year old.

"Yeah baby girl, I'm going to be here tomorrow."

"Okay." she replies with finality as she drops her head back down, sighing deeply.

Peyton and Karen laugh as Lucas disappears down the hallway with the little girl. As Karen goes back to the dishes, Peyton continues to watch down the hall with a smile on her face, thinking that she could get used to being around his family, so loving and wonderful, caring... Karen of course sees the young woman lost in thought staring down the hall and knows that it isn't only her son that is in love.

"You have a new life long best friend."

"Yeah, well, don't tell mine, because she'd probably be jealous." Peyton says, snapping out of her moment, and coming to dry dishes with Lucas' mother.

"She really does love you though. She usually doesn't get so attached so quickly... You have a way with her."

"Well thank you."

"You also have a way with my son, so thank _you_ for that."

"You raised a good man."

Just as she says it, Luke comes walking back into the kitchen and takes the rag from his mother, insisting that he and Peyton can work on the dishes while she goes and relaxes.

As the evening went on and the older couple got tired, Karen pulled out sheets and blankets for her son and his girlfriend, helping them make up the pull out bed from the couch.

"I hope that this will be okay... we haven't used it in years."

"I'm sure that it will be fine mom... but you know that we can always go stay at a hotel."

"No no! I insist that you guys stay here. It's cozy and I miss you, and I know that Lily wants to spend every chance that she can with her big brother."

"I think that I've actually been replaced by wily over here." he says, elbowing Peyton gently and winking in her direction.

"I'm just an irresistible personality..." Peyton says, smiling back at him.

"Don't I know it." Lucas then replies, kissing her lightly on the lips.

Karen walks away from the pair smiling and shaking her head, but sincerely glad that her son had met someone that he liked so much.

The two were then left alone in the living room. As he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and change before bed, she took the opportunity to take in his home. The pictures of a young Lucas, his uncle, his little sister scattered around. A copy of his first book proudly displayed on the mantle. A worn crocheted blanket draped across the back of a hand-me-down couch.

From what she knew about his mother and Andy, they were certainly not hurting for money in any way. In fact Andy might rival Brooke where assets are concerned, so she found it comforting that their house still held an old charm to it, with a few scratches here and there. It was perfect.

While looking at a picture of Lucas holding two infants on his lap, she was caught. "Are you snooping?"

"When you're invited in, it doesn't count as snooping."

He puts his arms around her waist and glances over her shoulder to see what she is looking at, and smiles, "That was probably just a few days after Jamie and Lily were born."

"They were born on the same day?"

"Lily was born just a day before when my mom was in the hospital with complications, and then Haley got brought in right in the middle of her Valedictory address."

She turns to him with wide eyes, "That was some speech, I guess..."

"She never got to finish it."

"That kind of stinks."

He takes the picture from her hands and trails a finger over the two babies, "yeah, but I think that what she did was way better."

When she says that she agrees, he meets her eyes and her heart nearly melts at the site. At one time she noticed that Lucas Scott gets a certain twinkle in his eye. It comes out when he shares a story about his nephew, or talks about a childhood memory with his uncle Keith. It was a look reserved for the love he had for his family. In that moment when green met blue, for the first time, she saw that twinkle... and it was all directed at her.

–

All right, and now we're going to go meeting Nathan and Haley and Jamie... expect some fun with that. Yeah... this is turning into a whole other animal that I did not expect. I had an idea, but then realized that I wanted to develop Lucas and Peyton's relationship more, taking it more slowly than I've seen done. So the idea that I had is still there, and I'm sure that it is going to come WAY out of left field, but for now, I hope that you are enjoying the randomness and the fluff....

Review with what you think, because honestly, that is part of the reason why I do these things... it makes me smile when I hear that someone loved an update or that someone is cursing my existence because I wrote a really good cliffhanger ending. So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed!


	5. A Night of Meetings

The next morning seemed to come quickly for the pair, as they stayed up late into the night with Lucas sharing stories from his childhood, explaining the scratches and dents that she had been admiring before.

When the sun peeked in the living room she groaned, "Please tell me that we don't really have to get up..."

"I'm afraid we do." he says, squeezing her to his chest.

With a little more convincing, Peyton decided to quietly make her way to the bathroom to get ready for the day as the others slept on.

Of course, knowing that her best friend was back in town, Haley couldn't resist the thought of coming over to see him... well, with the mask of seeing him, but really wanting to meet the new woman in his life. So, she came in the back door, quietly making her way through the kitchen and walking past the bedrooms without a sound.

When she got to the living room, she saw Lucas sprawled out on the pull out alone, "Aww man, you chickened out?!"

Jumping a bit at the intrusion, but quickly bouncing back into a smile and laugh at his best friend, he stood up and grabbed her in for a hug.

"Hey Luke... I missed you..."

"I missed you too, Hales." he says, putting a kiss on her forehead and not wanting to let her go yet.

When they did separate, they sat down on the edge of the bed and Haley was looking at him with a questioning glance, "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Why did you chicken out?" she asks, throwing her hands up in the air.

"What do you mean why did I chicken out?"

"You were supposed to bring this new girlfriend of yours with you this weekend so I could grill her for details and make sure that she's good enough for you!"

He laughs, shaking his head at the obvious care that Haley had for him and his well being, so much like a sister with a little mom mixed in for good measure. "Haley..."

"Well, the least you could do is tell me more about her! Is she pretty? I bet she's pretty. She likes music right? With that label that she started she has to like music, so at least we'll have that in common. Where did she grow up? What is she like? Have you guys... ?"

"I hope he thinks I'm pretty, I love music, I grew up in Wilmington, you'll have to find out, and... well I'm not going to answer the last one... cover everything?" Peyton says, coming in from the bathroom and hearing Haley's rant.

Haley turns around, eyes widening at the sight of the blond that she hadn't thought was there, "I'm sorry, I didn't think that you were here! I thought that Lucas chickened out!"

Peyton just laughs a little at the other woman's obvious attempt at back pedaling. "It's okay... my best friend did the same thing to me after I met Lucas too... endless questioning... no worries."

"I think I'd get along with your best friend."

"She gets along with just about everyone and then some, so I'm sure that you're right."

Peyton makes a move to shake Haley's hand, walking towards where they were sitting, "I'm Peyton, by the way..."

"Oh, I know... and you are way too beautiful to be going out with this dufus." she says, shaking Peyton's hand and turning back to Lucas.

"Well, thank you."

The moment however was interrupted when the sound of five year old feet was heard running down the hallway, "Peyton!"

"Woah!" she says, picking the young girl up and situating her on her hip, "What is up girlfriend?"

"You're here!"

"Did I tell you that I would be?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, there you go!"

"Will you eat coco puffs with me this morning?" she asks innocently.

"Lead on munchkin!" she says, gesturing grandly towards the kitchen and placing the young girl back on the floor.

Haley watches the retreating pair with a smirk, "Good morning silly Lily!"

Lily glances back towards them, with a casual wave, "Oh, Hi Aunt Haley..."

Haley turns back to Lucas with a look of disbelief on her face, "I have totally been replaced."

"_You've_ been replaced... I'm her brother and she ditched me... how do you think _I_ feel!"

"I like her Luke."

"Thanks, Hales."

"So, what time does this dinner shindig go down?"

"Probably around six?"

"And until then..."

"I haven't decided yet." he says, shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, Nathan mentioned trying to pry you away from your mom and your new girl for a game by the rivercourt with him and Jamie. Are you up for that?"

"Ummm... I would be up for that, but I don't want to leave Peyton here all by herself."

"That's okay, Peyton and I can take Lily to the park or something while you guys spend some boy time together. Or maybe we could go shopping. I've been meaning to buy Lily a dress for our picnic in the summer. I promised her a fun summer dress waiting for her when they get back from wherever they are headed next."

"I'll ask Peyton, and if it is cool with her, then tell Nathan that I'm game... and tell him to not go soft on me... bring all that NBA spirit!"

Though nervous about spending the day with a person who had been in Lucas' life for such a long time, who obviously cared a lot about him, she agreed. Haley mentioned that she needed to go run a few errands first, but vowed to come grab Peyton around noon so they could pick up some lunch and head out for some shopping.

After spending the morning making small talk with Karen and Andy, Lucas left for the rivercourt, and noon came all too quickly with Haley knocking on the front door of the house and walking into the living room.

"Hey, Peyton, are you ready?" she asks, smiling genuinely, excited to get to know her.

"Yeah, I'm ready." she says, standing up and grabbing her purse.

"Lily! Aunt Haley's here to take you to the mall with Peyton!" Karen shouts down the hall, and the little girl comes bouncing out.

"Okay, I'm ready!"

Pulling the little girl towards her, she kisses her on the forehead, "Now you be good for Peyton and Haley, okay? I don't want to hear a bad report, or Jamie will not come over tonight for dinner. Got it?"

"Got it!" she says, smiling at her mother, then turning to take Peyton's hand and drag her towards the door.

The adults laugh and Peyton offers a nervous smile and a wave as she is pulled out of the house and to Haley's SUV.

"I need help." she says, once she gets the door open and can't climb up and into her seat.

Peyton lifts her up and into the seat gently, watching as she secures her seatbelt, and then looks up at her with a smile, "Thank you Peyton!"

"No problem, munchkin." Peyton replies, playfully touching a finger to her nose.

After getting settled in her own seat in the front, Haley turns a DVD on for Lily and they pull out of the driveway on the way to the mall.

"You're really good with her..." Haley says after a minute, "Do you have brothers and sisters?"

"Ummm, I have a half-brother, but he and I didn't know each other until I was in my last year of high school. I love kids though."

"So, I take it that you want some then?" Haley asks back with a twinkle in her eye that Peyton recognized as a best friend trying to get information out of her.

"I would definitely like to have a family someday."

"Good to know..." she says, turning back to the road with a smile on her face.

"So, when are you reporting back to Lucas?"

Haley laughs, knowing that she wasn't fooling the girl, "I'm not reporting back to him... this is all just for me... "

Peyton just nods in her direction.

"Lucas has been like a brother to me, and he's had a lot of rough patches in his life, which I know he has shared with you.... The thing is... and don't tell him that I told you this, but the boy is head over heels right now for you, and I haven't seen that from Luke before. Every phone call these past few months has started and ended with Peyton, so I've got to make sure that you're in it for the right reasons and that you are really as amazing as he thinks you are." she says in a rant that she is pretty sure came out in one breath.

After this, Peyton just stares ahead for a moment, not responding to what Haley just said, letting it sink in.

However, after a while, having a moment to formulate her thoughts, she takes a deep breath, "It wasn't love at first sight, but by the end of our first conversation the man had already proven that he thought like me, which says a lot. It was so easy for us to fall into a relationship, that we have taken it pretty slow. He just..." she pauses, searching for the words, "he knows me, and while that scares the crap out of me, I don't think that I'm going to find it elsewhere. So, in short... I'm head over heels for him too, and in all honesty, I'm trying to figure out myself if I'm really as amazing as he thinks I am."

The powers that be happened to be watching, because it seemed that right as they pulled into their spot at the mall, Peyton had finished her own rant, giving Haley the opportunity to look over at the blond, searching her eyes for a moment.

When all she found was a sincerity that she was hoping for, she smiled, and Peyton let out a nervous laugh, "So, as far as the best friend goes... How am I doing?"

"Good... you're doing good."

Peyton and Haley seemed to get into a quick rhythm with each other after that, talking about Lucas and what was going on in New York, about Peyton's record label and Haley's long gone music career. It was a comfortable, quick friendship, and when Lucas finally called Peyton wondering where the girls were, they realized that the entire day had passed and made it back to the cars with a very tired Lily by their side.

Walking in the door of the Lucas' childhood home was another story, Peyton carrying in a crazy amount of bags, most of which were for Lily.

"Peyton, please tell me you aren't serious!" Karen says, laughing with wide eyes at the bags.

"We got a little carried away, I know, but..." Peyton starts when Lucas walks in and notices the bags at his girlfriend's feet.

"B. Girl?" Lucas says, with a hint of amusement in his tone.

Peyton just smiles back at Luke, with Karen looking between the two of them confused.

"Brooke called when we were at the mall to see how the trip down was and well, right after that she called the store... you know Brooke... you're powerless against her when she gets something in her head." Peyton explains to Lucas with a nervous look on her face.

They turn towards the door to see Haley walk in with a bright smile on her face, coming up to Peyton to give her a big hug, "Luke... you did good with this one. I know Lily did it, but I'm contemplating replacing you too."

Of course, noticing his wife walk in for the first time, Nathan lets his presence be known, "Hey, it is about time you guys got back... wait... is that a new dress?"

Looking between his whole family and his girlfriend, all he can do is laugh when Peyton bites her lip. "So, does Brooke say hi?" he asked, pulling Peyton in for a chaste kiss on the lips.

"That she does..."

"Okay, who is Brooke? Why are you laughing?... and exactly _How_ much money did the two of you spend at the mall today!" Karen says, completely confused by what just transpired.

"We didn't spend a dime, Karen... my best friend is a designer, who happens to own a kids line and a women's line with stores in the mall. When she found out we were shopping, she insisted that we stop by one of the stores. Then, when she found out that Lily was with us, she called the store and basically told them to outfit her in the entire spring line."

"Can I keep the clothes, mom? They're really cute!" Lily says, with her hands clasped together in a begging fashion.

"Lily..."

"Mom, knowing Brooke... if you returned them, she would just end up sending them back to you anyway, so you might as well say yes." Luke says, knowing that is exactly what Brooke would do.

Peyton nods with a smirk on her face.

"Well, in that case, I guess I have no choice... but you, young lady are responsible for putting all those new clothes away!" she says, as Lily grabs some of the bags and starts heading towards her room, "and you will write Brooke a thank you letter for Lucas and Peyton to take back to New York... and you left some bags in here."

"No I didn't!" she shouts from her bedroom.

"Actually..." Peyton says, picking up the bags and handing them over to the woman, "Brooke says these are for you..."

Karen just shakes her head and laughs at the situation, taking the opportunity to hug Peyton before telling everyone that dinner has been ready and that they should sit down and eat.

"I'm Nathan." Nate says, putting his hand out Peyton before sitting down at the table.

"And this..." Haley says, with her hands on the shoulders of a blond haired boy.

"Is James Lucas Scott!" Jamie cuts her off, sticking a hand out to her as well.

"Well, hello James Lucas Scott... your Uncle Luke has told me a lot about you."

"He has?" Jamie says, looking between his Uncle and this person he just met.

"Yup."

"And you're Peyton."

"Well, aren't you the smart one?" she says, messing his hair a bit.

"Actually, Uncle Lucas talks about you all the time... at least that's what momma says."

"Jamie!" Haley says, turning the boy and pushing him towards his seat.

As the rest of the family sits down, Lucas and Peyton take in the view for a minute, with her leaning into him and whispering in his ear, "I hear you've been talking about me a lot actually... from a few different sources."

"Liars" he says, squinting at her with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Hmmm... well... then I guess that you _aren't_ head over heels for me... too bad... because I was going to say that I'm falling for you too, Lucas Scott" she replies, kissing his chin, leaving him standing at the head of the table as she sits down next to Lily.

–

Okay, so this was entirely fluffy, but I wanted her to get to spend some time with Haley, cause... well... that's for me to know, and you to eventually find out. Anyways, I wanted to keep it light, but I have some lengthy plans for this one, so get prepared folks.

I hope that you are enjoying everything so far... let me know in a review! I don't do goals for those, but I want to see if I could ever break 200 reviews for a fic. Lofty idea, I know... but yeah... I'm also thinking I want to see how many chapters I could get something to be too... interesting...

Review!!


	6. Nervous Nights

As the months went on, it was easier and easier for them. While they had the occasional lover's quarrel, the pair seemed perfectly content with each other. So when, after six months of dating, he asked her to move in, she couldn't turn him down.

His family was thrilled and Brooke, who loved Lucas, was ecstatic about the arrangement.

The only person who hadn't been too keen on the idea was Larry Sawyer, who had never met the boy who had stolen his little girl's heart. When Peyton chatted with him one night, explaining that Lucas had asked her to move in, it conveniently happened to be right around the time that his boat would be docked for a week.

So, a week before the big move, her father took the trip up to New York, wanting to meet his daughter and her boyfriend for a nice dinner and a tour of this place that she was going to be living in.

"Lucas, this is a big deal."

"Peyton... It's going to be fine."

"But, my dad, while he isn't around all the time, is still very protective of his little girl, so I'm just warning you."

"Well, when we have a daughter, I know that I'll feel the exact same way, so I have no qualms with him being protective of you."

"You're pregnant?" Comes a voice from behind the pair who was obviously looking the wrong direction down the busy sidewalk.

Turning, she threw her arms around her father, "Dad! NO! I'm not pregnant! He was just..." she started to say, but not knowing how to finish.

"Peyton was just telling me that you were very protective of her, and I told her that I would feel the same way if I had a daughter."

"I see... The part that confused me wasn't that you said if I had a daughter, it was that you said when _we_ have a daughter..." Larry says, looking with a smile at this new boy in his daughter's life.

All Lucas could think of to do in response is put his hand out for the older man to shake, "Lucas Scott. It is a pleasure to meet you sir."

"Larry Sawyer. I'm just giving you a hard time Luke." Larry says, smiling and then turning to Peyton. "How is my beautiful Peyton?"

"Hungry..." she says nodding.

"Well, pregnancy will do that to ya." Larry says casually, walking past a stunned speechless Lucas and Peyton.

Turning towards Peyton, Lucas just shakes his head, "He knows that you aren't pregnant, right?"

"Yeah, he's just trying to see if he can ruffle your feathers. Don't worry, Scott, you'll survive."

With that, the couple join hands, walking into the restaurant after her father, letting the host know that they had arrived for their reservation.

"So, Lucas, Peyton tells me that you are an author."

"I am."

"How is that going for you?"

"I'm finishing up my third novel right now, and it should be printed and ready to sell in just a few months."

"And then what? You start another one?"

"Dad..."

"I'm just curious... it's like you and the label stuff... once you sign the band and they make a CD, what do you do with them?" he asks her, and when she doesn't respond he points a finger in her direction, "see, you don't know either."

"Depending on my inspiration, yeah, I start another one, or I wait for a bit. I have to do some book tours around the country at the start of the book launch, but other than that it is a great job."

"So you guys are going to move in together, and then you're just going to leave Peyton all alone in a brand new place?"

"Dad, it is no different from when you used to leave me home to go on the boats, so leave him alone."

Taking in the scene before him, Lucas, decided that his casual approach wasn't going to win over Peyton's father, who was obviously a man of action. So, he decided to take some action, "No, Peyton, it's fine... Mr. Sawyer, I don't want to seem rude, but I just want to tell you something. I love her." he says bluntly, and ignores the gasp that emits from Peyton's lips, "and I asked her to move in with me because I love her, and I know that the two of us have a future together. If she asked me tomorrow to cancel the book tours, I would. Shoot, if she asked me tomorrow to quit writing altogether because she wants me to join the circus, I would. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for your daughter, and it has been my goal for the past six months to protect her and care for her to the best of my ability. And... sir, with your permission, I would like to continue doing just that."

Larry Sawyer had a look that Lucas couldn't decipher on his face at the moment. It wasn't anger or frustration, but it wasn't acceptance either. As Peyton looked from her father to Lucas and back, she was more than nervous, not knowing what to do with everything that she just heard, including three little words that they hadn't exchanged yet.

When her father sat back in his chair and took a deep breath, Peyton did the same, fearing the worst, "All right." he says, looking Lucas in the eye.

Lucas just nodded and then both men went back to eating their meal.

"What just happened?" Peyton asked, not understanding the guy code that just passed around the table.

"You've got good taste Peyton, I like this boy." he says, pointing his fork and Lucas and looking at his daughter.

"Thank you Mr. Sawyer." Luke says, looking up and smiling.

"Call me Larry...I owe you that much."

"Well, thank you Larry."

It seemed that after that conversation was had, the boy's club mentality came into play. They talked basketball and football, and Larry explained to Lucas what he did for a living. The three talked about their plans for the apartment, Larry laughing when all Peyton could talk about was getting to paint the different rooms.

When they got Larry back to the apartment that would soon be theirs he was impressed. It surprised Peyton, but he was very accepting of everything, and when she walked him down stairs, she had to ask, "So, what are you really thinking right now?"

"I like him Peyton. I think that he really is a good guy, and if what you say is true about his family, then I know that he is going to continue to be that good guy."

"So you are really okay with this?"

"While I'm not wild about the idea of the two of you living together before getting married, I... Do you love him Peyton?"

"I do." she says, with a few tears welling up in her eyes.

"Then you don't need me to tell you if I'm okay with it. I'm glad that you found someone, and I hope that it all works out for the two of you." he says, pulling her in for a hug, and kissing her forehead before saying a quick goodbye and walking out the door.

That next weekend was moving day, which, while a significant step, wasn't a significant task, since Peyton lived with Brooke this whole time and didn't ever really need much in the way of furniture. However, the idea of moving day resulted in an unexpected, but welcome surprise as the two hear a loud knocking at the door around eleven in the morning.

"I'll get it!" Peyton says, while Lucas is putting up shelves in one of the spare rooms for her record collection.

When she opens up the door, she is met with the three smiling faces of Luke's brother, best friend, and nephew.

"Surprise! We're here to help you! Let's get you moved in!" Haley says, loudly enough to get Lucas to peak out of the room he was working in.

"Haley?"

"Yeah! We thought that you guys could use a little help with getting all of Peyton's stuff moved in and some of your stuff out and all that jazz, so here we are. Where do you need us?"

Peyton and Lucas just looked at each other and laughed, laughing even harder when the three that came to help started to look confused.

"Why are you laughing?" Jamie asks, obviously just as confused as his parents.

"We're done..." Lucas says, finally calming down.

"What?" Haley asks. "Please don't tell me that we got up at four this morning to help you move and are now getting back in the car because you are done."

"Well, we are done, but you are definitely not getting back in that car!" Peyton says, pulling on Haley's arm, leading her into the apartment.

"Seriously man, how did you do it?" Nathan asks, turning to Lucas as the girls go to sit in the living room.

"Peyton has been bringing stuff over every now and then and living with Brooke all this time, she hasn't accumulated any furniture or anything, so all I'm doing is putting up shelves in one of the spare bedrooms for her music."

"Well, then, I can help you with that!" Nathan says, glad that he could help with something.

"Can I help too?" Jamie says excitedly.

"We couldn't do it without you, buddy."

As the boys moved into the other room, it gave the girls a chance to talk again. Haley and Peyton had become quick friends in the months that she had been dating Lucas. She even came up for one of Brooke's fashion shows in New York, hitting it off with her best friend instantly. It was great to feel like she belonged with his family.

"So, what are we going to do all day?"

"Well... I've been wanting to have you come up here for something, but I've been a big wuss about asking..." Peyton says, with a cautious air about her.

"What is it?"

"Hold on for a minute..." she says, grabbing her cell phone from the kitchen and running into the bedroom to make the phone call.

A few minutes later, Peyton came back, all smiles, "It's all set, we've got somewhere to be."

"Where are we going?"

"Don't you trust me?"

She raises an eyebrow to the blond, her lips set in a thin line, "Boys! We'll be back in a few hours! Don't do anything stupid, and keep an eye on Jamie!" she shouts down the hallway.

With that, they walk out of the apartment and downstairs to hail a cab. The address Peyton rattled off to the driver was not something that Haley was familiar with, and when they pulled up in front of a large office building, she was even more confused.

It was when they walked into the offices that was their destination that Haley realized what she intended, "Peyton, no."

"I distinctly remember someone telling me that if she only had studio time, and if there was only a good studio in Tree Hill, that she would LOVE to lay down the song that she's been working on."

"Come on, Peyton, I don't have any of my stuff with me, and I don't remember anything that I wrote."

"Really?"

"Yes." she says, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than Peyton.

"Huh, cause that actually just sounds like a bunch of excuses to me."

Haley says nothing, just crossing her arms over her chest and pouting much like her son does when he doesn't get away with something.

"Haley, you have quickly become like a sister to me, and with all that we have talked about with music, I don't know anyone who deserves to be in this studio right now more than you do."

"Peyton..."

"For me? Just a couple hours of work, and we'll see where that lands you. If nothing comes of it, then it wasn't meant to be."

With a sigh, she walks into the room, sitting down at the piano and resting her hands on the comforting keys. She knew that Peyton was right, and she knew that opportunities like this don't come that often, so she started to play. Playing turned into recording, and before they were done, she had laid down some great tracks for what Peyton said was a great start for an album.

"Peyton, an album, really?" she asks, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Red Bedroom Records would be lucky to have you... very lucky actually."

"Listen, I know that you are dating Lucas and you feel like you have to be nice to me, but seriously, I am not good enough to get an album out of me. I'll still like you if you hate my music."

Grabbing the woman's shoulders, Peyton let out a huff of air, "Seriously Haley, this isn't a favor of any kind, or a way to win you over... If there is anything in this world that I will never lie about, it is what I really think about a piece of music. Your stuff is good! It's really good, and you have a passion behind it, which is EXACTLY what I am look for in artists. Take a chance Haley James Scott, be in the spotlight for once."

When they get back to the apartment, the boys are sitting in the living room playing some random basketball game that the girls can't identify.

"Hey, where'd you guys go?" Nathan asks when he finally realizes that they are in the room.

"Oh, just to work on my new album with Peyton." Haley says casually, smiling at her friend.

"What?" both men say, pausing the game to walk over to where the girls are standing.

"Yeah... Listen, Nathan. She really has so much talent, and I'm not going to let this take her away from you guys, but I want her to have this, because she is an amazing musician." Peyton says, basically pleading with Nathan to see where she is coming from.

"Hales, I think that's GREAT!" he says, crossing the space between them to hug her, and then breaking from the hug to allow for their lips to meet.

"What's going on?" Jamie says, sneaking between Lucas and Peyton, who were still waiting for Haley and Nathan to come up for air.

Peyton's response is just to grab Jamie, covering his eyes, and clearing her throat in hopes of getting the two to come out of their moment.

When the two break, Haley looks down at Jamie, and back up to Lucas and Peyton, just laughing.

"Well we didn't know if you were going to let it go any farther..." Lucas says, with a sarcastic grin on his face that makes his brother and best friend smile.

Later that evening, after a long day of touring the city, Lucas and Peyton insisted that the three stay the night at least, not wanting them to drive back late at night.

As they lay in bed after that long day, Lucas can't help but marvel at the way things have turned out in the past year, "I love how much you love them." he says, rubbing small circles on her shoulder as she lays on his chest.

"They make it easy and they're a part of who you are, so I can't help it."

"So, you and Haley are making an album together?"

"Yeah. She needs to do this Luke, I can just feel it, and it's going to be so good."

"Knowing Haley, and knowing you, I have not a doubt in my mind. I'm just glad that Nathan was so supportive."

"I know... that has to be hard for him with all that happened."

"She told you about that?"

"We're women, Luke, we tell each other everything."

"Haley doesn't... that means something."

"Well in that case, I'm glad that she talked to me about it. She's become a good friend to me, and that's saying a lot considering I've really only let Brooke get really close to me as a girlfriend."

"I'm glad that you said yes to moving in here..." he says, squeezing her closer as he does so.

"Six months later, and who would have thought..."

"I did... the second you turned me down, I did..."

"Really?"

"It wasn't love, but it was something..."

"And what is it now?"

"Everything."

"I love you Lucas Scott." she says, scooting up a bit to kiss his chin.

"And I love you Peyton Sawyer..."

–

Okay, solidifying the ties, getting my bearings... what are we thinking? I'm having a lot of fun writing this. I didn't think that I'd ever do an AU story, just cause... yeah, but I like it. It's like the characters are all the same, and you know them, and you love them. In my case, I know that aside from Peyton and Brooke growing up elsewhere everything is basically the same, but I don't know... it makes it easier to write. I can play with things, and develop relationships... or maybe tear some apart. We'll see...

Let me know what you think by posting a review!

P.S. This is totally my longest chapter, cause I couldn't shut up... yeah... loving it!


	7. A Night That Brought About the Past

Two weeks later, they were down in Tree Hill, ready to set sail for a little relaxation with Lucas' family down the east coast to Florida.

"Do we have everything?"

"Mom, you have checked and rechecked everything like fifty times. It isn't like we can't dock somewhere and get it if we forgot something."

"I know, it's just that this is the first time that we've been on a vacation as a family in a long time, and I would like it to be perfect for Jamie and Lily, and for you and Peyton, and Nathan and Haley..."

"We get it... and it is going to be great, now stop freaking out about this!"

Coming in from the outside, Peyton charges through the door, "Hey, are you guys ready, cause we have two very impatient children sitting in the car, and Aunt Peyton can't think of any more songs to sing with them!" she says with a huff.

Wrapping her arm around the shoulder of the younger woman, she laughs and pulls her out the door, "Yeah, I guess we're ready."

Once they got sailing it was wonderful, with the kids up with Andy learning how to steer the boat and the girls laying out on the deck working on their tans. The weather was absolutely perfect, not too hot, but just warm enough that you had a thin layer of sweat that would cool you when the breeze blew.

Getting life jackets on the kids, they decided to drop anchor off the coast of Georgia for a little swimming and then some dinner. Peyton jumped right in, loving being by the ocean again, and after a little convincing, the kids joined her, taking turns jumping into the water. Nathan quickly followed, as Karen and Andy sat by the edge of the boat, keeping an eye on all of them.

This left Haley and Lucas to themselves, which was exactly what he needed, "Can I ask your opinion on something?"

"Sure Luke!" she says, following him as he starts to walk downstairs to retrieve something.

"Do you think she'll like it?" he says, pulling out a velvet ring box and opening it for Haley's inspection.

"You're going to ask her to marry you!!!" she shouts at first, falling to a whisper as Lucas waves his arms around trying to get her to be quiet.

"Not right this second... I don't even know when, but in the not too distant future. So what do you think? Is she going to like it?"

Haley glances at the ring for a moment, studying it, finally letting it click, "Luke this is the ring that Keith gave your mom..."

"I know... she told me that she would hold on to it for me until it was the right time, and I told her that I wanted to have it around, just in case."

"This is going to mean the world to Peyton, you know that right?"

"Do you think so?"

"She gets it Luke... all of the stuff that you've been through... partly because she's been through some pretty bad stuff too, but that ring is going to mean so much to her."

"That's what mom said too... she loves Peyton."

"Yeah, we all kind of do." Haley says, smiling and patting her friend on the back, taking in the moment that they just shared, "Will you tell me before you do it?"

"I will... I don't know when though..."

"You'll know..." she says with a knowing look, telling him to put away the ring before Peyton finds it, and his romantic plans fly out the window.

They then joined the rest of the family out on the deck, Lucas watching Peyton interact with his little sister and nephew and realizing just how amazing she is going to be down the line with their own children.

"Lucas Scott, you better get your squinty eyes in here, or I'm coming out to get you!" she screams at him, with his sister hanging onto her back.

"yeah, come on Lucas!" Lily shouts at him.

"Peyton, I'd like to see your chickeny legs come out and get me, cause I highly doubt that you could get me to come in that water."

"Hmm... well maybe I can't get you to, but..." she trails off as Karen gets behind her son, pushing him off the boat, watching him surface with a laugh.

"My own mother was conspiring with my girlfriend..."

"Oh, honey, that's how this works, didn't you know?" Peyton tells him innocently, letting him swim towards her and put his hands on her hips under the water.

"Eww... are you guys gonna kiss??" Lily asks, peeking over Peyton's shoulder.

"And what if we are?" Lucas asks back to his sister.

"I'm outta here!" she cries, swimming back to Jamie and Nathan, leaving Lucas and Peyton in their own world.

"I'm so glad that we came with them." she says, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

"Me too. We needed the vacation."

"Especially with you leaving me in a month for this book tour deal..."

"You know that I would stay with you in New York if I could, right?"

"I know that you would, but it will probably be for the best anyways. I'll actually get some work done, and Haley is going to come up once to work on her album in the studio."

"See, you won't even know that I'm gone."

"Cold sheets at night, and no one to kiss me goodnight? Oh, I'll know."

"It's just one week, and then I'm back in your arms... and our bed again"

"Yeah, until you have to leave again, two weeks after that." she says with another pout on her lips.

"Peyton..."

"I know, I'm just jealous of the fact that you are leaving me for all these places. Maybe you'll meet some other girl while you're in Texas, who can yodel and is a Dallas Cowboy's cheerleader, and has a nice ass."

Finally swimming them away from the others, to grab on to the side of the boat, he presses up against her, sending a few shivers up her spine at the touch, "First of all, who wants a girl because they can yodel, second of all, you _are_ a cheerleader and the only one that I want, and third of all, the only ass that I ever want to look at is yours..."

"Really?"

"Peyton, I have you pressed up against the side of the boat and all I wish is that something would come out of the sky and take the rest of my family away for a few hours, so I can show you just how true what I just said is."

"Are you trying to seduce me?" she asks with a smirk on her face and a gleam in her eye, her lips parting as her breathing started to get a little shallow.

"And if I was?"

"I'd probably let you..."

They stayed where they were, taking long moments with each other, exploring the taste of each other as they made out like a bunch of teenagers who never got to spend enough time alone. Her hands were everywhere, and his hands had taken to rubbing light circles across her back. It wasn't until Lucas' sister peeked over the boat that their moment was gone.

"They're over here kissing!!!!" she cried before running back to where everyone had apparently sat down for dinner.

With a laugh and a few more short kisses, they climbed back on the boat, wrapping themselves in a few towels as they joined the group who had grown incredibly silent when the couple approached the table.

"What?" they both say, which leads to his mother shaking her head and putting a plate in front of both of them.

"Why don't you two eat up... you'll probably need the strength for tonight." Karen says, and the two younger couples' jaws hit the floor.

After that, no words were spoken, and Peyton and Lucas didn't dare meet the eyes of anyone else at the table. They knew that when they were older, they would think back on this moment and laugh, but right now, having your mom talk about your sex life was not something that either enjoyed.

They docked in Savannah, getting a few rooms at one of the local hotels.

Andy and Karen insisted that Haley, Nathan, Peyton, and Lucas went out for a night on the town, assuring the group that they would also be just fine keeping the kids and sleeping on the boat for the evening.

After a lot of protest, they finally agreed, taking a few things off the boat and getting into their hotel rooms to shower off the salty ocean water they had spent so much time in.

"So, where do we want to go?" Haley asks, looking at the three in front of her.

"Let's see if we can find somewhere with some live music... I love country boys singin' with a southern twang!" Peyton says, pulling Haley with her and letting Lucas and Nathan just follow behind.

The place that they found was nice, and the band was just setting up when they got there, so they got some drinks and made there way to a booth that was set in the corner of the bar, close enough to the band, but cozy enough that it was away from the main crowd of people.

True to ladies' form, the girls decided that they needed to hit the bathroom before the place got crowded, and mad their way across the bar. Haley was ahead of Peyton, which made the next event possible as one of the band members stepped in front of Peyton while she wasn't paying attention.

She fell a bit, but was caught by a new set of arms catching her on the way down, "Are you okay?" he asks, concerned for the woman.

Her ears perked and her stomach did a flip-flop when she looked into the eyes that were supposed to be those of an unfamiliar Georgia boy, but instead were a very familiar Wilmington boy, Jake Jagielksi.

"Peyton?"

"Jake?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm on vacation... what are you doing here?"

"I live in Savannah now."

"I thought that Nikki..."

"She's down here now too, but everything has been worked out. She only gets to see Jenny on the weekends."

"Oh my gosh, how is Jenny? She's what, six, seven years old now?"

"Yeah... she'd probably love to see you... how long are you here for?"

"Oh, umm... just for the night. We sail back out tomorrow morning..."

"Sail?"

"I'm with friends... and they've got a yacht, so when they offered, how was I to refuse."

"Yeah..." he says, noticing the other band mates waving him over by the corner of his eye. "Listen, I've got to go get this done, but maybe I'll catch up with you later?"

"Maybe... I don't know how long we're going to be here."

"Well, in that case, it was good to see you Peyton Sawyer, don't be a total stranger." he says, pulling her in for a hug and kissing her temple.

She stood, watching him walk away, and then bouncing back to reality when Haley tapped her on the shoulder, "Hey girlie, I was waiting for you in there!"

"Yeah, uh, I realized that I didn't have to go, so I just stayed out here."

"Oh, all right. Well, are you ready for some dancing?" Haley asks, swaying her hips a bit as she pulls Peyton back to their booth.

"Sure..."

Peyton didn't want to dance though, insisting that she was too tired to dance, and trying to get the group to leave the bar earlier than they had planned. The tired claim didn't work, but they let her sit for a while just listening to the music. She thought that she was in the clear, nobody needing to hear about the high school love of her life who left her broken hearted but still in love six years ago.

Well, she thought that she was in the clear, until Jake did something that would quite quickly break her cover.

"The next song was written when I was just eighteen, after leaving the love of my life, and hoping that she would come back to me some day... and little did I know that she would walk back in today..." he says, daring a glimpse at Peyton which, thankfully no one caught.

As the lyrics of his song floated out into the bar, she couldn't help but stare, her eyes welling up with a few tears as she remembered how they had left things that night when he went to find his daughter.

"Peyton?" Lucas said, catching the tears in her eyes as she listened to the song, and noticing that her eyes hadn't left the singer's at his questioning tone.

He watched that for a moment, watching her watch him with a broken look that he had never seen before. When the singer's eyes looked up, he automatically searched for Peyton's, knowing that she would be returning the gaze.

"Peyton, what's..." he starts.

"I'm going back to the hotel... I can't be here right now." she says, getting up quickly and walking out the door.

Lucas turned his eyes back to the singer, who had seen what happened and followed her departure with his eyes, a tone of sadness flowing through them, much the same as the way she looked at him while he sang of the love of his life who finally came back to him. It was then that the song and everything that happened made sense. The love of his life was Peyton, but the scary thing was that he didn't know anything about this man in front of him, and he obviously still had an effect on her...

–

Okay, I'm ending this chapter here, and splitting up this little trip, because I started writing and it kept coming out. I had honestly no intentions of writing Jake in, but it just happened. For the purposes of this story, Jake and Peyton through season 2 is really what I'm thinking. Her going to Savannah her senior year didn't happen in this story, but everything with nikki and Jenny (minus the skank fight over Lucas) actually did happen. So yeah... there you have that. And the song that he sang was the same one from the episode in the show where she visits him in Savannah, "Someday" Anyways... more for next time... you knew I couldn't keep the drama out... but seriously, that was weird, cause it just kept coming out and suddenly Jake was back. That wasn't even drama that I had planned, so I hope you enjoyed it!!!!

Reviews are like crack for me, so please, fuel my habit!


	8. Late Night Conversations

"Brooke?" she says into the reciever, sounding pathetically broken.

"_Peyton, what's wrong"_ Brooke says on the other end, clearly concerned at the voice she was being presented with.

"It's Jake..."

"_Like Jake, Jake? Jake Jagielski Jake?"_

"He's here and we..."

"_Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer, if you are about to tell me that you slept with Jake Jagielski, I'm going to hop on the first plane to wherever the hell you are right now, and kick your bony ass!"_

"No! I didn't sleep with him, Brooke, he's just here... and he was... Jake."

"_And your insides are all conflicted now... and you're wondering if Lucas is really the one for you..."_

She contemplated her best friend's words, not having thought about that idea of the evening. Not once actually. In her mind, she still had Lucas, she was still in love with Lucas, and Jake was very much her past. "No, actually... I know that Lucas is the one."

"_Then why are you calling me and telling me all this?"_

"It just hurts Brooke."

"_What does?"_

"Seeing him again, and I had thought that after six years, the feeling would be totally gone, but it wasn't. I knew that Jake was always going to be there in some way, but I wasn't prepared for him to come out tonight. It was like the whole end of our relationship came to a crashing halt at my feet again, and suddenly I was seventeen, and bawling my eyes out as he tells me that I was too good for him anyway."

"_Peyton, you should talk to him...both hims in fact. Where was Lucas during this chance meeting?"_

"He didn't see me run into him but I'm pretty sure he figured out that he was the reason why I left... God Brooke, I hope I didn't screw it up with Luke."

"_You didn't."_

"You didn't" she hears from across the room, an echo of a phrase that she knows he didn't hear on the other end.

"Hey, Luke just walked in, and I think that he and I need to have a chat..."

"_Call me if you need me P. Sawyer"_

"Thanks best friend." she says before hanging up, and then turning to Lucas, who was now standing next to her by the side of the bed.

"Luke."

"Who is he?"

"An ex."

"He's obviously more than that if you're running out of bars into the evening by yourself in a strange town that you've never been in."

"He was the love of my life...and I hadn't seen him in six years... until tonight." she says, not meeting his gaze.

He had figured that there was a history there, but to hear her use the words love of her life, he had to take a moment to regroup, which was when his mind reeled at the fact that she said _was_ and not _is_ when describing him.

Sitting down, he knew that the only way that anything would be resolved would be if they talked about it. "Tell me."

"God Luke, it happened so long ago that it doesn't even matter now."

"It does... to you... It doesn't to me, because I believe in what you and I have, and you have _never_ shown me any reason to not believe... but I have never seen you so broken, Peyton, and if I know you, you need to talk it out." he says, grabbing her hands in his as he gives her his speech.

"We were juniors and became friends because he was on the basketball team. Little did I know he had a daughter, Jenny, who he had kept a secret to everyone, until me. We got close and I got close to his daughter, until his ex, who had walked out when the baby was just three weeks old, decides to come back and wants her child. So, I helped him run away with Jenny, and he left on a boat that my dad was piloting at the time. Somewhere along the line, Brooke called him back, knowing that I was on a quick spiral downhill..." she starts, catching his facial expressions as she continues to retell the story of Jake and Peyton.

Finally, after plenty of tears and confusion, she was done, and he was still sitting with her on the bed, unmoving, with a look on his face that she couldn't describe.

"I think that you need to go see him."

"What? No, Luke."

"Peyton, he hasn't moved on, and I think you know that, or you wouldn't be so reluctant to go see him, and you wouldn't have stormed out of there the way you did tonight."

"I want to be with _you_ Luke, you know that."

"I do, which is why I'm telling you that you need to go talk to this Jake guy and tell him about your life, find out about his. That way, you understand the bigger picture, and he can have a chance to let you go."

She chooses to kiss him then, amazed by a man who would encourage his girlfriend to go hash things out with a man that she openly called the love of her life. She knew that he was right, though, and she knew that she needed to go back down to that bar to talk to Jake.

Standing up, she bent down to kiss him one last time, and grabbing her jacket, moves towards the door, turning back only when she hears his voice, "Was?"

Obviously confused, her brow crinkles as she thinks for a moment about what it is that he is asking, until It dawns on her, "Definitely was... You've been it for a while, and you'll be it forever... he just gets the high school version of myself."

"And I'm okay with that Peyton..." he says sincerely.

"Which is why I'm in love with you Luke." she says simply, walking out the door and down to the main lobby.

She knew that this was going to be hard, but she waited for him to finish, sitting in the back corner where he couldn't see her. He knew that she was there though, she could tell by the way he smiled when he sang the first song she ever heard him sing.

She walked up to him as he had his guitar in hand and was walking out the door, "Walk with me a minute?"

"Definitely." he says, waving good night to the band members, who all had a surprised look on their faces.

"How are you Jake?"

"I'm good. I like it down here, and there is a lot for me here... some things are missing, but I like it." he says quietly, "What about you?"

"I'm great actually. Within the last year, it seems like everything fell into place. I have a record label now."

He raises his eyebrows at that, surprised, but not, knowing that she could do that all along, but happy that she had made it work for her.

"So that's work..." he says, implying that she needed to expand on other things in her life.

"Lucas... he's what helped make everything fall in place this past year."

"The brunette?"

"No... the blond."

He nods, taking in the information, his heart sinking a little bit, "You love him?"

"I'm gonna marry him..."

"No ring. You gave me hope when I bumped into you earlier."

"He hasn't asked yet, but I know."

At this point they had walked the short distance to her hotel, him not adding anything after her admission about this man in her life.

"Jake..."

"You don't have to Peyton, you don't."

"I heard your voice, and I swear that my stomach did flip flops. It was like we were walking in the halls at Wilmington High all over again. I loved you Jake, I still love you. You were the high school love of my life, and I will always be grateful for that. I wouldn't have let anybody in my life had it not been for you."

"Is he good to you?" he asks, taking in what she said, and admitting to himself that she had moved on with her life.

"I couldn't ask for more."

"Does he know you're down here talking to me?"

"He insisted that I do it, actually."

"What, Peyton Sawyer was too chicken?"

"You broke my heart when you left Jake, and then you sang that song tonight, and I was just afraid that I would be breaking yours."

"Peyton, my heart broke every day after I left Wilmington, and I always hoped that by some miracle we would meet again, but life got in the way."

"We're here now."

"That was just God's way of letting me check up on you."

"Well, I'm good."

"That's all that matters." he says, looking up at her with the same shy eyes he had when they were seventeen.

"I should probably attempt to get some sleep before tomorrow." she says, gesturing to the hotel beside her.

"You should."

He moves to hug her then, wrapping his arm around her, and pulling her tight, just like he used to. She pulls in just as hard, thankful to have a moment with someone who had meant so much to her. When they pulled away, she had a sad smile on her face.

"I'm okay Peyton."

"Keep up with life Jake."

"You too..." he says, watching as she turns away to walk in the main entrance, "and Peyton?"

She turns back to him, waiting for what he had to say.

"Whenever you get to that wedding, Jenny would probably make a kick ass flower girl..."

"I'll keep it in mind." she says, with a wave before walking into the hotel and up to her and Lucas' room.

When she got into the darkened hotel room, she stripped off her dress from the evening, slipping into a pair of boxer shorts and a tank top before crawling into bed. She loved this part of her life, getting to watch him sleep for a few moments, seeing his face relax and his eyes soften. It made her love him more, these moments.

Of course, they had this connection where they could just sense each other's presence, so with a few flutters, his eyes opened, turning towards her, "How'd it go?"

"It was... hard... but good all at the same time."

"You okay?"

"Yeah... he seemed happy for me, and I think that letting me go is going to be a lot easier than he thinks it is."

"Well, I don't know about that." he says, wrapping his arms around her, letting her head fall onto his chest.

"Why do you say that?"

"It's so easy to love you Peyton, to fall in love with you... but it would be unbearable to lose you."

"You won't." she says, smiling up at him.

"No?"

"I'm yours forever, and you're stuck with me as far as I'm concerned."

"Forever?" he asks, slowly, carefully treading around the prospect of forever, knowing that he's got a ring in his bag, and this could be that moment.

She turns in his embrace, sensing the moment, feeling what he is asking her in no certain terms. Smiling, she lifts her hand up to stroke his check, putting a finger on his lips. "Luke..."

"You started the conversation, Peyton... it isn't like it's the first time that we've talked about this..." he says, recalling a heated argument just a week ago about marriage and moving to quick too soon for certain things and divorce rates, ending in her admitting that she was scared shitless about the future, even if it was with him.

"You'll know... when I'm ready, I mean..."

"And when you are ready, your answer to the inevitable question will be...?"

"You'll just have to wait and find out." she says, pulling herself up onto her elbow, and leaning up to kiss him.

One kiss turned to several, and soon, all that was keeping them covered in the sticky Georgia heat was the thin cotton of the hotel bed sheet.

Afterward, they both lay there, thinking about the conversation that led them here. No matter how much she could see a future with him, it scared her to no end. Having the ring in his possession made him all the more antsy to get started with the rest of their lives. Both knew that they were on the same page though, knowing that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, and excited to embark on that adventure.

–

Really, guys... did you think I would let the Jeyton thing really happen??? I mean come ON!!! Anyways...

So this was a shorter chapter, but I didn't want to combine this with the last one cause that would have been crazy long, and my goal is to have each chapter around 2,000 words. Whew... all right, I've got to say that this is soooo much fun to do. I hope you guys are having fun reading this, and there is going to be some stuff happening pretty soon. I also hope that you didn't hate me, or think it cliché to bring back Jake after all these years. He's a cool character, but I know he never stood a change against Lucas and Peyton....

Anyways, that was a light one, so yeah... hope you enjoyed... Reviews make me smile!

P.S. Hope you had a good fourth of July! (if you live in the U.S. That is!)


	9. A Night That Changes Everything

"Why?" she says, playing with the soft hairs on his chest, as she adjusts the sheets around her.

"Because."

"Luke, that is such a bad answer... why?"

"Cause it's my job!"

"But we've only been moved in together for a month... that's not enough time for me to be sick of you yet!"

"Excuse me?" he says, grabbing her hand, and laughing at her comment.

"I'm just not ready to give you up yet. I want you all to myself."

"Need I remind you that it is now three in the morning and you have had me all to yourself since eight o'clock last night."

"Oh, I don't need a reminder of that, but I'm just saying that it is going to get awfully lonely here for the week that you're gone." she says, in a sultry voice, crawling up his body and pressing a kiss to his lips.

"Peyton, you're killing me here..." he says after they break for air.

"You're seriously complaining?"

"I'm not complaining, but it is going to be ten times harder getting on that plane this afternoon when all I've had for my last hours home is you, me, naked in a bed."

"Oh... too bad... making you want to stay?"

"So, this was your dirty little trick all along, huh?"

"Maybe..." she answers playfully, then screaming when he grabs her and flips them over so she is smiling beneath him.

"Good thing for you... all I want to do in my last hours home is spend hours in bed naked with you, Peyton Sawyer."

"Lucky me." she says, before he kisses her, and they continue the dance that they started hours ago.

When the alarm finally goes off, the two of them groan, having only gotten a few hours asleep because of being a little occupied with extracurricular activities.

"So tired..." she mumbles, curling up against him.

"Your idea..."

"Hey," she says, smacking him on the shoulder and settling back into the bed, "it takes two to tango, babe."

"I will never complain about how we spent last night or this morning... but I will complain that no sleep and flying for six hours is going to be a bitch today."

"Well, good luck with that!" she says, pushing him away from her and flopping onto her stomach to go back to sleep.

"You're coming to the airport, aren't you?"

"Seriously?"

"Don't you want to see your man off?"

"I've seen my man enough in the past twelve hours, I'd like to see the back of my eyelids for that long too..."

"Peyton..."

She looks up at him, looking down at her with his cool blue eyes and a smirk, knowing that she would cave eventually.

"Fine... I will rise, but dammit Lucas Scott, I will not shine..."

With that, he is left alone in the bedroom as she hops in the shower to get ready to take him to the airport. He is still smiling at her retreated form as he hears a yell come from the shower. "Luke, you better get in here and help me stay awake!"

Laughing, he opens the bathroom door, stepping into the shower behind her, making sure that she had some good memories to remember him by.

At the airport, it seemed borderline ridiculous. They were 24 years old, holding hands in the airport and moping about how they were going to be apart for a week. They might as well had been seventh graders in the hallway between classes wondering how they would survive the forty minutes of class without each other with the way they were acting.

"I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you too."

"Take care of the apartment, and take care of you."

"You take care of you too."

"Do I really have to leave?"

"Yup... at least that's what you keep telling me."

"I do, don't I?"

"Go make me proud Lucas, and tell our story..." she says, planting a lingering kiss on the very corner of his mouth.

Not caring who was watching, he grabbed her close, bringing her in for a searing kiss that was borderline inappropriate for a public place like this. They were sure to be making some people blush, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they had to spend a week apart from each other.

"I've got to go... security always sucks, you know?"

"Yeah... I wish I could go with you... at least to the gate."

"Damn FAA!" he says, laughing, with a big smile on his face after she caught the sarcasm and shared in the laughter.

"So, goodbye?"

"Yeah, I'll see you in a week... be careful. And when Haley gets here on Wednesday, have fun... show her the town... don't do too much work while I'm gone." he adds as he's walking away.

"I love you!"

"I love you too, Peyton. Forever."

"Hey, Luke?" she asks, a smile beaming across her face.

"Yeah?" he says, turning around, but staying where he was.

"When you get back... maybe we could talk about that word again?"

He gets a confused look on his face before the realization hits him and the smile that crosses his face would make anyone who saw it start beaming.

"I love you..." he shouts, one last time, with a quick wave.

She, of course, watches him until the last possible moment, waiting until he turns the corner and she can't see him anymore. Then, a whisper crosses her lips, "Peyton Sawyer will be Peyton Scott..."

–

Just two days without him and she swore she had cabin fever. It also didn't help that Brooke was in meetings for the new line almost every moment of every day.

Thankfully, she sat on her couch now, waiting for the buzzer to let her know that Haley was here, ready for a few girl's days and some studio time. It would be a great distraction to keep her mind off of Lucas' absence and she loved the idea of spending time with Haley again, who was quickly becoming second to just her best friend.

When the buzzer buzzed, she ran to the box on the wall, pushing the button to let her in almost immediately, not even checking to see if it was in fact her.

Then, when the sound of just one knock was heard, the door was flying open, and Haley was surrounded by the flailing arms of Peyton. "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Wow... that is quite the welcome!" she says after pulling away for a minute to look at Peyton's welcoming smile.

"I've been impatiently waiting for you all morning..."

"My over enthusiastic welcome wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you have realized that you and Lucas don't know what to do with yourselves now that you have each other, would it?"

"No..." she says instantly, then catching the knowing look on Haley's face, changes her answer, "Maybe...?"

Haley just laughs, remembering what it was like to be in that new relationship, without the kids and the house and all the responsibility that comes with that package. "I'm okay with being your distraction."

"You are a lot more than that, but thank you."

Grabbing Haley's stuff, they get her set up in the guest bedroom, and then move to spend some time chatting on the couch, catching up with the last week since they spoke.

"So, how are things? How's the new digs and the living with a boy treating you?"

"Surprisingly, it was so easy... we marvel at it all the time, the way we just fall into it like we do."

"Doesn't surprise me."

"No?"

"The day after he met you, he called me, nearly in a frenzy, asking me what I knew about independent record labels and art galleries, talking a mile a minute. When I finally got him to explain what the hell he was jabbering on about, it came out that he was in a tizzy over a girl... you."

"A tizzy?"

"He had no idea what he was talking about, and I was completely confused, because usually me talking to Lucas about dating ends with him complaining that he hated New York girls and that he wasn't going to meet anyone at a bar to date, let alone to marry. This time though, he couldn't explain what had happened... you rendered him speechless for once in his existence and it scared the crap out of him and made him so excited all at the same time. Then, when I met you, I knew that the two of you were exactly what the both of you needed..."

"He is."

"I know that, and I'm glad that you two are so great together."

"I told him I wanted to marry him..." Peyton says, looking down at the hands in her lap.

"He asked you!?" Haley screams, after she hears this information.

"No. I just... we've talked about it before... forever, you know... and any time that we've brought it up I've run scared from it. Then the night that we were in Savannah and all that happened with Jake, I mentioned something about forever, which brought it all up again, but I told Luke that He would know when I was ready for that."

"So... you're saying you're ready now?"

"On Sunday, at the airport, the two of us were basically pathetic, and when he tells me he loves me, he tells me forever, and I watched him start to walk away, and it was like the clearest thing in my life, so I told him that I wanted to talk about forever when he got home."

Haley smiles a genuine smile at the nervous blond in front of her, knowing that the second Lucas got back, the ring that he had hidden would make an appearance and the boy would be down on one knee.

"Well, I'm excited... You'll make good in-laws."

"Thanks..." Peyton says, glancing at the time, "speaking of being good in-laws, part of this trip is me sucking up to you a little bit, treating you to some fun stuff while you're here... soooo... I got us tickets."

"Ooooh! Where?"

"I'll never tell, but get on something nice, cause we are going out for a late lunch, a little shopping, and a trip to Broadway..."

The next morning, both of them waking up with a bit of a hangover, they stumbled into the kitchen in search of coffee, which of course was usually Lucas' job, making Peyton miss him even more and Haley nauseous at the sweetness of the sentiment with a combination of the alcohol left in her system.

"Curse Brooke Davis for sending us a limo set on a bar crawl..."

"I can't believe she organized all of that... that was absolutely insane."

"She just felt bad that she ended up not being able to come out with us, and she didn't want a perfectly planned bar crawl to go to waste."

"The party girl in me loves her right now, but my spinning, pounding head... not so much."

Peyton laughs, and groans when she hears a cell phone ring that seems to be so loud that it penetrates her brain to reside right behind her eyelids with a sting.

"Sorry... I'm sorry..." Haley says, patting Peyton on the head as she covers her ears and lays her head down on the table, and then grabs her phone, "Hello?"

"_Mrs. James-Scott?"_

"Mr. Nash, what can I do for you?"

"_There was just one piece of information that I still needed from you to finalize these papers... the bank number for Jamie's savings account."_

"You know what, I am actually out of town right now, so if you call Nathan at home, I'm sure he'd be able to find that for you. And thank you for working on this with us. With Nathan's new contract, we wanted to make sure that all of our legal papers were in order."

"_Always be prepared, I say! Have a nice trip Mrs. James-Scott."_

"Thanks" she says, hanging up the phone and setting it on the counter next to the steaming cup of coffee that Peyton had just poured.

"What was that all about?"

"Since Nathan just signed a new contract, his agent suggested that we get our money situation all sorted out by a lawyer for safety. We don't need the money right now, so we had to set up different accounts and stuff for Jamie, and all this other random stuff that we had no clue was important."

"Sounds quite obnoxious..." Peyton says, scrunching her nose.

"Well, when you get rich and famous because of your small time turned _major_ label, then you'll have to deal with the same stuff."

"We'll see... speaking of which, are you ready for some quality studio time Haley James-Scott?"

"Give me a couple of hours and a handful of aspirin, and I'll try my best." she says, shaking her head at the memory of the evening before.

–

The two were surprised how much work and fun could be accomplished in just two days together, with them getting enough studio stuff done to keep Peyton busy for the rest of the week. Mixing final cuts of everything, managing the current deals she was working on, and working on getting up a press package for what was going to be Haley's new album very soon, had her working until the day Lucas would come home.

"When does your plane land?" she asks as soon as she flips open her phone, after a quick glance at the caller ID.

"Hi Peyton... I missed you to... I'm glad to talk to you..."

"Oh, shut up and tell me when you're coming home..."

"You see... there's a problem..."

"What kind of problem..."

"A stranded at an airport in Ohio kind of problem?" he says in a questioning tone, trying to make light of the situation.

"What?" she says with a whine in her voice that would make his younger sister proud.

"I'm sorry... I don't know what happened, but one flight got delayed and then I miss my connection, and now I have to wait for another one, and it's just all messed up..."

"Well, what time do you think you'll be here?"

"Probably not until after midnight..."

"Luke..." she says, the whinyness creeping in again.

"Peyton, I can't help it... I'll be home as soon as I can, but I don't want you to wait up for me, I'll get home on my own. You need to rest up for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Well, you know how we ended things before I left?"

Smiling, she knew exactly what he was getting at, "Yeah..."

"That's exactly how I intend on spending my first day home... so carb up and sleep away, cause I'll be home in a few hours."

"You're horrible, you know that?"

"Says the woman who just whined like a five year old when I told her that I would be late..."

"All right, All right, Call me when your flight out of Ohio leaves, okay?"

"You got it, babe."

"I love you."

"Love you too."

And now all she could do was wait. He told her to go to bed, but she couldn't, so she opted to stay up for a while reading. Somewhere around eleven o'clock she fell asleep, her eyes drooping as she tried to focus on the pages in front of her.

When it hit just after midnight, the dip in the bed was enough to wake her, turning with a sleepy grin on her face, "You're back." she says, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

"I am... God... You are even more beautiful than when I left...how do you do that."

"Stop trying to woo me and just kiss me, Lucas Scott... we've got a whole week to make up for."

He leans down to kiss her, resting his body on top of hers, relishing in the feeling of her warm body again, vowing to himself that he would never leave her again.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too, so much."

As they resumed their kissing, his phone chooses to ring, interrupting the moment, causing her to break away from him.

"Let it ring, Peyton, they can wait."

Nodding, she went back to the task at hand, only to be disrupted again when things got a little more heated and clothing started to come off. "Luke, you should get it."

"I would kill myself if I stopped now... It is probably just my editor making sure that I got home okay, and frankly he can shove it." Luke says, emphasizing his last point by pulling off the t-shirt of his that she had chosen to wear to bed this evening.

The thoughts of cell phones and editors, book tours and albums faded away again, as they rediscovered each other after a week apart. He whispered I love yous between kisses down her neck, and she whispered I miss yous as she kissed up his chest after ripping off the dress shirt he was wearing.

This time, however, it was Peyton's phone that interrupted the moment. His hand in a very distracting place and her lips kissing towards a very distracting area all seemed to stop as they both groaned in frustration at the break in their reunion.

"Whoever it is really wants to get a hold of us... I've got to get it." she says, kissing his chin before reluctantly pulling away to retrieve her phone from the night stand.

"If it is Brooke, tell her to watch her back when she's sleeping, cause I'm going to kill her" he says, slumping down on to the bed with a huff.

With a smirk, she grabs her phone, flipping it open without bothering to look at the Caller ID, "Hello?"

"_Peyton?"_ the voice says, but she can't make out who it is for a moment.

"Yes, this is she..."

"_Did Lucas make it home yet?"_

"Karen?" she asks, making the connection of who she was speaking to, "He made it home okay, are you all right?"

Hearing her question, Lucas senses that there is something wrong and sits up, looking expectantly at Peyton for an answer to what is wrong on the other end.

"_You guys need to get to Tree Hill..."_

"Okay, we're on our way, but what's going on?" she says, standing up, and motioning for Lucas to get some clothes on and walking into the closet for some jeans and a t-shirt for herself.

"_It's Haley and Nathan... there was an accident..."_

"Oh, God! What about Jamie?"

"_He was with them, I don't know the details, I just...I think you guys need to get here as soon as you can."_

"Okay, you guys hang tight, and call us if you know anything... we're getting ready to walk out the door now..." she says, and then hangs up, turning around to find Lucas standing there with a broken look on his face.

"Jamie?" he asks hesitantly, not knowing if he wants to know the answer.

"She doesn't know... she doesn't know anything. They just called her a few minutes ago."

"Peyton, I can't do this... I can't lose them."

"You won't, honey." she speaks softly, rubbing his back in an attempt to calm him down a bit. "They're probably going to be fine."

Looking up, he smiles at her gesture and her words, "You're right... but we should go..."

Grabbing their keys, they ran down to Peyton's car, getting in and mildly cursing the thought that they were going to have to wait six hours before seeing the family. That thought alone causes Lucas to push down a little farther on the gas pedal.

–

Okay... are you hating me right now? Please don't... I'm trying something new... and I haven't seen it done here before... at least that I've noticed... so yeah... bear with me... cause I think I might be in it for the long haul, and I'm pretty sure that you have to come with me!! And... I kind of based the six hours off of New York to Wilmington... and then took a couple hours off for story purposes.... hope that doesn't bother anyone, but since Tree Hill is fictional... so is time traveled in the car! Hehe!!

Review, cause I love it!

P.S. This is my longest chapter in like the history of EVER... be a little proud of me and my long-winded self.... show me some love!


	10. The Night Continues

Driving had always been something that she loved to do, him too. Tonight, however, there was no music playing, there were no stories being told. The only sound was the road, and the only thing that either was paying attention to were the road signs counting down the miles until Tree Hill.

A phone conversation with Karen told them that Jamie was in the hospital, and okay, only having a few scratches and a broken arm. The last she heard, both Haley and Nathan had been in surgery since their arrival at the hospital.

They had only a little idea of what they were walking into when they came into the Tree Hill emergency room that night, met by Andy and Karen.

"Lucas...God..." she says, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

"What do you know? Do you know anything else?"

"No... they haven't come out and told us anything."

"What about Jamie, where is he? Is he awake?" Peyton asks, concerned for the little boy who had taken a liking to her so quickly over the past few months.

"The nurse is doing another check up, and the drugs that they've given him for pain are making him extremely sleepy. I've been trying to get him moved into the children's area for some time now, too, not wanting him to have to deal with the noise around here."

"Did they say what was wrong with Nathan and Haley, or how long this was going to take?"

"They just told me to be patient, and the doctor would come out to let us know what was going on."

As she finishes explaining this to him, the nurse that was looking in on Jamie comes out of his room, telling Karen that he can have visitors again.

"We'll sit with him awhile, okay?" Lucas says, hugging his mom, and still holding on to Peyton's hand as he turns towards the room that the nurse just came out of.

His blond hair was mussed, as it always was, and his eyes closed with a nasty gash that seemed to swell up too much for such a short period of time. His right arm was hooked into an IV, and his other arm was splinted in such a way that he couldn't move it if he tried. It was too much for a six-year old body to have to go through at one time, but they knew that he would pull through with flying colors.

"He's so tiny in here..." Lucas says, sitting down next to the bed.

"But he's okay... and that's all that matters."

They sit there, in silence for a few moments, allowing the hum and buzz of the machines to be the background noise, for fear that if they talked about it, it would make things somewhat worse.

Lucas, being the literary mind that he was, could do nothing but imagine how this could turn out, "I'm so glad that he's okay... but I can't lose them Peyton."

"You aren't going to Luke, you aren't."

"You don't know that."

"I don't, but are you going to let the devil get the best of you in this one? Letting you believe that there is going to be tragedy? That isn't you Lucas... They would have wanted you to stay strong regardless because of Jamie."

"You're right." he says, looking back to the boy, and then up at Peyton, whose hand had taken residence over the small one of his nephew.

"I've got to get some coffee, you want?"

"No, I'm fine, but hurry back."

"Got it." she says, standing, and placing a light kiss on Jamie's forehead and patting Lucas on the shoulder before leaving for the coffee machine.

The second she got out of the room, she was being stopped by Karen, "How is he?"

"He's okay, but he's scared."

"After everything that has happened between him and Nathan to get them to where they are, and thinking about the amazing friendship he and Haley have, I don't blame him."

"How are you Karen?" Peyton says, putting a hand on the shoulder of the older woman.

"I don't know. I didn't ever want him to have a part of Dan, and that meant that I was so worried about him and Nathan becoming close. But it was one of the best things for him. And Haley... she was the girl who decided that her family had enough people and we didn't have enough... at eight years old, that girl had a bigger heart than anyone in the world. She's like a daughter to me."

"She is a good woman... she and I have really gotten close these past months, and I don't know..."

"Well... when Haley gets out of there, she will be back in the studio in no time and the two of you can continue the friendship that you started...and all three of us can continue the job of keeping Lucas in line, just like we have been" she says, getting a little misty eyed as she spoke the words.

"It'll be fine..."

"I know it will..."

"Where did Andy go off to?"

"One of the neighbors is watching Lily, but I wanted her to sleep in her own bed, so I sent him home for a bit."

"Luke and I are here now, Karen. Why don't you go get some sleep too?"

"No... I won't be able to sleep until I know they're okay, and until I see Jamie awake."

"Well, I'm going to grab some coffee, would you like some?"

"That would be nice, Peyton. Thank you." she says, smiling and then pulling her in for a quick hug.

She walked down the hall and around the corner to the machine quickly, grabbing coffee for the two of them, and when she came back, she saw a young nurse talking to Karen.

"What did she have to say?" Peyton asks, walking up to her and handing her the warm coffee after the nurse left.

"She said that the doctor was on his way up to talk to us."

"I'll get Luke, and I can stay in with Jamie in case he wakes up." she says, walking away and opening up the door to Jamie's room quietly, and plastering a thin smile on her face when she meets the eyes of Lucas.

"Hey, has he woken at all?"

"No, he's still out of it." he answers, with his eyes never leaving the sleeping boy.

"A nurse just said that the doctor is on his way up, so I told Karen that I would sit with Jamie while you went out there to be with her for a bit."

"You sure?"

"I'm here, Luke. I'm in this." she says, stepping around to the side of the bed he was on, placing a kiss on the top of his head, and pulling him in towards her.

"I love you, Peyton."

"I love you too, babe."

"I know I'm new here, but you are all like family to me now... you know that, right?"

"You think I'd let anybody sit in here with my little nephew if that wasn't the case?"

"I just wanted to make sure you knew that..."

"I said forever Peyton, whatever that forever has in store for us."

She nods, with a small smile on her face, glad that he understood where she was and what she was feeling right now. He stands up and makes his way to the door, looking back to see her taking residence on the chair he was just sitting on. Her eyes were focused only on the little boy, her hand placed over his, lightly stroking over the back of it in a comforting gesture.

When he walked out, his mother was sitting down, with a man speaking with her in hushed tones. He assumed it was the doctor, and sat down silently next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder as he allowed himself to hear what the doctor was saying.

"....and it took a long time to stabilize both of them. When we went into the surgery, we were fighting a losing battle, and there was even more internal bleeding than we initially thought. They fought hard, but we were unable to save them..."

The man continued on for a while about what happened, and the procedures and details, but Lucas shut down after the news that he lost both of them, his eyes focusing on the door across the hall. A door that led to a room that held a boy who just lost both of his parents. He no longer had a brother. His best friend would never get to see her little boy grow up.

Without a word, he stood, ignoring his mother's questioning and confusion that he would walk away. He slowly made his way to that room, quietly opening the door to reveal his girlfriend and his nephew.

When she locked eyes with him, it was like all the emotion in the world couldn't make up this feeling she had, seeing him broken, and feeling a little broken herself. She knew what the doctor said the second their eyes met. She looked down at Jamie and then back to Lucas as a few tears made their way down her cheeks. He didn't make a move towards her, and she didn't stand either, just connecting with their eyes, knowing that somehow, this changed everything.

She broke the contact when she felt movement under her hand, turning to face the little boy whose eyes were fluttering open as much as they could.

"Jamie?" she asks, quietly, reaching up to stroke his hair as he woke up and his eyes met hers.

"Peyton?"

"Do you remember where you are?"

"In the hospital."

"Yeah, you're in the hospital, but you are going to be just fine." she says, her voice betraying her as it cracks at the end, with her head knowing that he might not be that okay after this accident.

"Uncle Lucas?" he asks out into the room, making the assumption that with Peyton comes Lucas automatically.

Walking over to the boy's line of sight, he placed a hand on Peyton's shoulder, leaning down to make sure he saw him, "Hey Jamie, how are you?"

"I'm sleepy..." he says in a soft voice with a yawn.

"It's okay to sleep Jamie... you're going to be pretty tired for a while."

"Where's Mama?" he asks, with his little brow crinkled as much as it could be with how his face was bandaged in certain areas.

Peyton's eyes welled up a bit as she turned to look at Lucas, who had a look of shock on his face at the question. She shook her head subtly, knowing that now was not the time to tell the boy that his parents weren't going to be there.

"The doctors are taking care of your mom and dad right now, just like they took care of you." Lucas finally says, smiling at him.

After regaining her composure, Peyton turned back to the little boy, feeling so much for him, knowing the feeling of losing a parent, but at the same time not even comprehending the idea of losing both at the same time. Wanting to comfort him, she moved her hand to the top of his head, stroking the short blond locks that she found there.

"Okay..."

"Can we get you anything, Jamie?" Peyton asks softly.

"I want to go to sleep again..." he says, his eyes drooping shut.

"We'll be right here." both of them tell him, and Peyton stops her movement for a second moving her hand back down to rest on his.

"Peyton?"

"Yeah, buddy."

"Can you do that again? Mama does that to help me sleep when I don't feel good." he says, his voice dripping with that six year old innocence.

Knowing that his eyes were closed, she let the tears fall, and resumed her touch on his head, trying to keep her emotions in check as she lulled the boy to sleep.

That was how they sat for another half hour, her stroking his hair, and Lucas standing next to her watching the scene before him with a hand on her shoulder. "Peyton, we should let him sleep..."

"I can't...I don't want him to.." she says, with a catch in her voice.

"He'll be fine..."

"He said that's how she helped him fall asleep. I don't want him to wake up and think something's wrong."

"Something _is _wrong, Peyton..."

"Lucas..."

"We've got to go check on my mom. He'll be okay." he finally says after she said his name in that pleading tone, squeezing her shoulder.

They stand up, and with a final quick glance to make sure he was still sleeping, they walk out of the room to find that Andy had come back and was consoling his mother in the same spot she left him.

"Mom..." he says, walking up to her and taking her into his arms, silently apologizing for leaving her out here alone.

"It's okay, I understand."

"I shouldn't have left you out here..."

"No... our primary responsibility is that little boy now, I know that..."

"He woke up for a few minutes." Peyton says from her spot next to Andy.

"That's good." Karen says, nodding, and looking back at Lucas, who had yet to break down.

"I'm going to go make a quick call... Luke... will you be okay?"

"Yeah."

Nodding, she walks into another hallway, taking out her cell phone and dialing a familiar number, cringing at the thought that it was way too early to be calling this person. But it was the one who was always there for her, and she knew she could count on her.

"_Oh, my God, Peyton Sawyer, somebody better be decapitated for you to call me this early."_

The statement hit her hard, even knowing that it was her friend's bad attempt at a joke. It was like the night's events all the sudden exploded in front of her, and she was realizing how big this really was. So, she did all she could do, and let the feeling wash over her, sobbing into the phone for a few minutes, listening to Brooke trying to calm her down on the other line. Finally, something broke through, "_P. Sawyer, honey, I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong... did something happen with you and Luke?"_

"No... I just... We're in Tree Hill."

"_Didn't Lucas just get back from his book tour? Why did you..."_

"There was an accident... Haley and Nathan and Jamie."

"_Oh my God, is everyone okay?"_

"Brooke..." was all that she could manage before breaking down a bit again.

"_What can I do?"_

"We have to stay here for a while... I don't know how long. Jamie made it. By some grace of God, he's okay, with just a broken arm and a couple of scratches. But Brooke... they're gone. He doesn't..."

"_Peyton, what can I do?"_

"I need you to go to the apartment and get me and Luke some clothes. Pack enough for a couple weeks, and then can you make sure that Christy can cover the gallery?"

"_You've got it. I'll be there as soon as I can, okay?"_

"Yeah, thanks...and can you pack something nice for..."

"_I know, I've got that too...How's Luke?"_

"I don't know. I don't think that it has hit him yet."

"_Does Jamie know?"_

"No. He only woke up for a few minutes, and he's asleep again, but just call me when you get in the area, I should go so I can check on everyone."

"_Peyton, I know how you are... You may not have known them all your life, but it is okay to break down... It's okay to not be the strong one every minute."_

"I know. Tonight though... I do."

"_Fair enough... I'll see you in a few hours."_

"Okay, thanks." she says, hanging up the phone, and walking back to the doors that would lead her back to where the family was.

The only one she found was Lucas, sitting in a chair alone with his head in his hands. She moved toward him, and with a quick look into the window saw that Karen and Andy were sitting with the slumbering Jamie.

When she sat next to him, he felt her. He knew that she was there even before she put the reassuring hand on his back. As he looked up, with red-rimmed eyes and dried tear tracks down his face, she knew that it had hit him.

"How am I going to tell him?"

–

Okay, so do you all hate me? Please don't tell me that you hate me, cause that would make me sad. It was really hard to kill them off, and wow... really sad to think about that happening. Hmm... Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed it. This is still going in my head, and I've got a lot still planned, so bear with me, folks, and keep reading, and keep reviewing, because that really does mean a lot to me.

Some of you may also know that I'm trying my darndest to reply back to some of your reviews, because they really do mean a lot... so if you have questions or whatever, or you want to tell me you love me...hmm... not like Psycho Derek love me... you know what I mean... then review it baby!!

Reviews rock!!


	11. After the Night

He repeats it again after she is still silent, "How am I going to tell him that his parents are dead? How is that fair? What is he going to..."

She moves so she can pull him more closely, allowing him to rest his head on her shoulder, "You tell him that someone else needed them, but that he has people around him that love him and are going to be there for him, always. You tell him that his parents loved him, and that we are never going to let him forget them, and that they'll always be watching over him." she says confidently.

"And then?"

"You let him be angry, you let him cry, and you love him... and then later, it'll get a little easier."

"When do I tell him?"

"When he asks...and he will soon. It'll be okay Luke, he has so many people around him right now... he'll be okay."

"What do I tell myself?" he asks, turning to her again with that same broken look from before.

"You tell yourself the same thing... that you have people around you that love you, and that you aren't going to forget Haley and Nathan..."

Wiping his eyes, that had started to shed a few more tears as he was listening to her speak, he stood up, walking over to the window to watch his mom and Andy look after Jamie.

–

When she had gotten the call, she was distraught, knowing that Peyton didn't deal with these things well, and has had to deal with these things way too often in her life, she grabbed her key and went straight to the apartment.

Getting Peyton's things was easy, knowing her friend well, and knowing what she would want or need pretty much "to a T". But packing for Lucas was a bit harder for her.

She settled on getting a few outfits for him for the week, including a suit that she found and sadly knew that he needed in the coming days. When she got to the necessities she was a bit hesitant. It was her best friend's boyfriend, who had really become a good friend to her, and she was sifting through his underwear... not something that she did ever, but it worked.

"Suitcases... Suitcases..." she mutters to herself, moving around the apartment in search of something to put all these things in.

She remembered that he had just gotten back from his book tour, and found his suitcases by the door, and Peyton's in the hall closet. Going to work she packed all the clothes up for the couple and then went towards the bathroom to get everything else they might need.

Once she did, she opened up the front pocket of Lucas' suitcase, not surprised to find that there were some things in there. However, as she emptied out the front pocket, what she did find was surprising.

"Holy Crap!" she says, picking up the small box that had landed on the bed.

Opening it, she found what she assumed was an engagement ring, a silver band with diamonds adorning it. It screamed Peyton, which made her wonder if her friend already knew about what she held in her hand at the moment. She was happy for her, and she loved Lucas, and she knew that it was heading to this, so she gladly placed the ring back in the pocket, as if she never saw it, and finished packing everything that she thought they might need.

–

Around ten o'clock that morning the doctor came in to check on Jamie again, commenting that he was doing quite well, but saying that he still wanted to keep him overnight since he had obviously hit his head a few times.

When Jamie heard these words, he was confused again, "Where's Mama? Are the doctors still trying to fix them?"

Karen, who had been sitting by Jamie's side, looked up to Lucas and Peyton, not knowing exactly what to say in that moment, and not knowing how to say it.

While not wanting to overstep her boundaries, but still knowing that Lucas wasn't in the right place to talk about it yet, Peyton stepped forward as Karen moved out of the way. With a look to Lucas, who had moved to stand behind her, she talked in hushed whispers to the small boy, "Jamie, you know how much we love you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we have to talk to you about something, and we want you to remember that we love you and that we are going to be here for you as much as we can, and you are going to be okay."

"Are you guys leaving?" he asks, confused by what she was saying.

"No, but something happened with your mom and dad, and _they_ had to leave."

"When are they coming back?"

"They can't come back, buddy. They're up in heaven now." Lucas adds, finally gaining the strength to say something to his nephew.

"Why can't they come back?" he asks, with his lip quivering like the small child he was.

"You remember when Quentin died? We were all really sad for a while, but we could always remember the fun things that we used to do with him and how great of a friend he was to us?"

"Is that what happened to mama and daddy?" he asks, his eyes then taking on a silent sadness that the adults could barely stand to watch.

"Yeah, buddy, that's what happened to your mom and dad."

He doesn't say anything for a little while, just looking at his Uncle and Peyton, sometimes glancing over at Karen, almost waiting for them to explain everything.

Finally, he broke the silence, "I'm sleepy again... can I take a nap?"

"Sure, Jamie... Do you want us to stay until you fall asleep?"

"No, I'm okay..." he says, shaking his head and turning to rest on the pillow.

They were taking turns for the next hour after he had fallen asleep. Karen went back, taking Lucas with her to shower, leaving Peyton with Jamie at the hospital until they came back and she took a break.

It was during this time that he woke up again, a bit of fear in his bright eyes, "Where's mama?"

"Jamie, your mom isn't here... do you remember what we talked about?" she says quietly, in soothing tones.

"She and daddy are up in heaven with Quentin..."

"That's right... but you don't have to worry, because we are here and we aren't going anywhere." she explains, while putting a reassuring hand on his.

"Peyton?"

"Yeah, Jamie?"

"Is is okay to be sad?"

"Can I tell you a story, Jamie?" she asks, and at his nodding, continues, "When I was just a few years older than you, my mom died. She died in the hospital after she was in a car accident just like your mom and dad... and I still miss her, especially when things are really really hard. But you know what?"

"What?"

"I have so many great people around me, like Brooke and my dad, and your Uncle Lucas, and I know that they will always be there for me and take care of me."

"But you still miss her?"

"I do, sometimes, but... my dad could tell me stories about my mom and whenever I was upset, he would tell me a story about her that would make me happy... Now you... my little friend are so lucky, because your Uncle Lucas has been best friends with your mom for a long time and he is your dad's brother, so I bet that he has tons of stories that he can tell you if you are missing them."

"Yeah..."

"It gets better though, Jamie, I promise. And if you ever need anything, you just ask us, and we will help you as much as we can."

"Peyton?" he asks, and she gestures for him to continue, "Do you have any stories about mama?"

"As a matter of fact James Lucas Scott, I do..."

As she started to tell Jamie a story from when they were in New York, Lucas pulled the hospital door shut, not wanting her to know that he had heard the whole thing. She was right though, he was lucky to be able to share with Jamie how great his parents were. He would do his best to make sure that he would always have the stories to tell his nephew.

Not wanting to interrupt Jamie and Peyton, he took a seat in the very seat that had broken him just a few hours earlier and rested his head in his hands.

"Lucas?"

"Brooke?" he says, recognizing her voice and looking up to see her standing in front of him.

"Luke, I'm so sorry about what happened..." she says, bending down to give him a hug.

"Thank you... but what are you doing here?"

"Peyton called me earlier, asking me to get some clothes and stuff for you guys to stay here in Tree Hill for a while..."

"She did?" he asks, looking towards the door and smiling a sad smile in wonderment at the woman he had fallen in love with.

"If I forgot anything, just let me know and I'll go out and get some stuff for you guys, but I think I got everything."

"Thank you, Brooke, you didn't have to."

"I did, Luke. Peyton is my best friend, and since I know where you two are headed and I love you too, I wouldn't have had it any other way..."

Picking up on her subtle hint at their future, he had to ask, "She told you?"

"She didn't tell me anything... but I found the ring..."

"She doesn't know about the ring..." he says, and her eyebrows raise, "What?"

"I thought that she had picked it out... it's perfect for her."

"It was my mom's when she got engaged to my Uncle Keith."

"Lucas, that's beautiful..."

"I haven't asked her yet, I was waiting for the right time to do it. Now doesn't seem the right time, but soon."

"I have no doubt in my mind as to what her answer will be."

He nods, just a slight motion to his head, "She's in there telling Jamie some Haley stories. She's so good with him, and she's so good with this whole thing."

"She gets it Luke, she's been through it before."

"I know that."

"Just don't let her cop out of talking to you about how she's feeling. Peyton is great at burying her feelings when she's hurting the most, and I know how she feels about your family... especially Haley."

"I'm going to go in there and relieve her for a bit... she was going to go get a shower at the house and take a little nap, can you take her?"

"Anything you need, I'm here."

"Thanks Brooke." he says, giving her a small hug before walking over to Jamie's room to get Peyton.

When Peyton came out and saw Brooke, the tears just fell, long and hard, finally letting her break again after having to comfort the little boy sitting in that room. "Brooke...he... God this was so hard!"

"I know... I know..." she says, comforting her best friend, not knowing anything else to say.

After a few minutes, Peyton straightened up, looking at Brooke with red, teary eyes, "I should really go get some sleep. And I think that Andy and Karen will be back in a little bit... Jamie has to stay the night, so we're trying to make sure that he doesn't have to be alone for any of it."

"Okay, well, let's get you a nap and a shower, and then you'll be ready to come back in no time."

With a nod, they both start towards the exit, Peyton glancing in to Jamie's room one last time, seeing Luke talking to his nephew.

"He's good with him..." Brooke says with a hand on Peyton's shoulder, looking through the small window herself.

"Yeah, he is. He's going to be good for Jamie to have around..."

"And whoever else might come along the way..." she replies, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Looking to Brooke and then back at Lucas again, she too allowed herself to smile for the first time in the past twenty-four hours.

–

Okay, this one needed to be a short one, and then next one may be shorter as well... hopefully you are okay with that!!! Hmm.... Yeah... I know that some of you hate me right now, but I promise that all will be well in the end... and I had another idea for this fic that will keep it going strong for at least a bit longer... I hope that you'll like it though... we shall see. But for right now, I hope you're liking it!!

I'm loving the reviews as well, liking all the comments and questions. Right now, I just finished chapter 14 for this fic... and I'm thinking about writing some more for my other fics as well... so enjoy... cause I'm in it for the long haul...

Here's a question too... once it gets up past these tenish chapters, should I split it into a new story, or should I just keep it going strong as one story... let me know your thoughts!


	12. A Hard Day

The few days after the hospital were an absolute blur for everyone. Jamie came home, which they decided would be Nathan and Haley's home for the time being, with Lucas and Peyton staying there with help from Karen and Brooke, who would also stay around all the time.

When Haley's family started to come in, it got even more hectic, with all of her sisters and their families, trying to console Jamie, who really wanted to be left alone.

"You need help with that?" Lucas asks his nephew, walking in to find him messing with his tie.

"Yeah... dad used to always fix it for me..."

"Well, I can certainly help you with that. I'll fix it."

"Thanks, Uncle Lucas...." he says, pausing for a bit afterwards, "when does everyone else leave?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just want it to be us again..."

"You mean me and you?"

"and Peyton, Karen, Lily, and Andy... and maybe Brooke."

Lucas laughs that he added Brooke in, someone who he had met just one brief time before she had stayed to help them out.

"Soon, buddy... I think they're leaving soon."

"Then what?"

"Then... I don't know... we'll have to figure it all out. I know that Peyton and I are going to go talk to some people about everything, but you don't have to worry about any of that."

"Okay... can we go now?"

"Yeah, why don't you go wait in the car while I go get Peyton?" he says, patting Jamie on the head before walking down the hall to his girlfriend.

She was standing in front of the mirror, with an expression that he couldn't pin down. "Peyton?"

"Huh?" she startles, wiping a tear that he hadn't noticed from her face, "Is Jamie ready?"

"Yeah, he's out in the car... you okay?"

"I will be. This just sucks."

"You don't have to..."

"Luke, I'm not going to tell you this again... I know I don't have to be here, but I want to be here, and I love you and I love Jamie, and I loved Nathan and Haley. I'm not going anywhere..."

"I know that... It's just..."

Putting a finger to his lips to stop him from finishing that sentence, "Luke... I'm not going anywhere."

"We should go... long day ahead of us." he says, kissing her lightly on the forehead and waiting for her to follow him out of the room and back to the car.

The ceremony was held for both of them, and it held old friends and new, family members that hadn't been together in years, and so many memories. It was beautiful, but sad all at the same time. Jamie was brave through the whole service, looking to Lucas when things were said that he didn't understand or that upset him. Lucas would hold onto his shoulder to comfort him, or try to smile down at the boy.

When they were lowered down into their final resting places, Lucas grabbed a handful of dirt for both, allowing it to fall over each. Not knowing why, but understanding that it was something important, Jamie too grabbed two small handfuls of dirt, throwing them down the way his uncle did.

Later that evening, as the family was starting to leave, Jamie had his first real breakdown, something that seemed to come of nothing, but certainly stirred something in everyone.

"Jamie, why don't you come sit by me?" Vivian said.

"No, I want to stay here." he replies from his spot on the couch.

"Why won't you come visit with your Aunt Vivian?" she says again, patting the spot next to her again.

"Because I don't want to."

"Now, Jamie, don't be rude." she says a little more forcefully than before.

"I'm not being rude! I don't want to!" He screams loud enough to send Lucas running from the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Jamie..." his aunt says, confused by the burst of anger from the little boy.

"NO! Why don't you LEAVE! Mama wouldn't have wanted you here anyway! You weren't ever here! I don't want you here! Go away!" He screams again at her, then turns to run down the hallway, running into Peyton's legs.

She picks him up gently, taking him back to his own room until she hears his tiny whisper, "Can I go in their room?"

Looking into the boy's watery blue eyes, she had to grant him this one request, and turned around, taking him down the hall to his parents' room.

Meanwhile, Lucas was in the family room dealing with the aftermath of what had just happened.

"I think that it would be best to call it a night, everyone. Jamie has had an incredibly long day, and has an incredibly hard time ahead of him."

"Let me go say goodnight at least..." Vivian says, moving towards the hallway.

"I think that you should just go... he needs some time."

She nods, sadly, understanding how the boy felt, remembering how she felt when she found out that her sister was gone.

"I'm sorry that I caused a scene." she apologizes, bowing her head.

"He just needs time."

They all agree that Lucas is right, and leave shortly after the outburst, which left just him, his mother, and Brooke.

"You guys going to be okay?" Karen asks, putting a reassuring hand on her son's shoulder.

"We'll be okay... it has just been a long day, for everyone."

"I'll be back tomorrow..."

"You know what, mom... why don't you just wait for a few days, until Thursday... that way he doesn't have to really deal with a lot of people in the house. When Peyton and I go to that meeting in New York, you can come watch him."

"You're right, he needs the space... you call me if you need anything."

"We will."

She turns to leave, motioning to Brooke to follow her as Brooke waves goodbye to Lucas, letting him know that she understood what was needed.

"I'll send the jet for you guys on Thursday."

"You don't have to do that."

"It'll get you there and back a lot faster than driving, so I insist."

"Thank you Brooke... It has really meant a lot to Peyton having you here."

"I'm here for you too, Luke." she says, turning, and walking out the door right behind Karen.

Apparently, more time had passed than he thought. He went first to Jamie's room, but found an empty bed, then thinking that every little kid wanted the same thing when they were scared: mom and dad's bed.

When he found them, he was finally asleep with dried tears covering his face, still in his little suit from earlier in the day. Peyton was clutching the small boy in a protective manner, with tears in her eyes as she hummed to him a song that he didn't recognize.

"He asleep?" he whispers, causing her to stop the humming for a moment.

"Just a few minutes ago..."

"What were you humming?" he asks, having a feeling that he knew what the answer was.

"It was the first song she recorded with me... it was actually about Jamie. He knew it. He smiled when I started to hum it to him, like he remembered her singing it."

"Where there was a piano, there was Haley. He's probably heard everything on that album you guys were working on."

"I'm going to try to get a copy of it for him, let him hear her voice."

"That's a good idea." he says, sitting on the edge of the bed, just watching his nephew sleep for a few minutes, "We should go to bed."

"I don't want to leave him in here by himself."

Nodding, he takes his shoes off, moving to take hers off as well. He lay next to her then, kissing her cheek and wishing her sweet dreams.

It was rough that evening and the evening after, but they made it through. They don't know how much sleep they didn't get, but Jamie seemed better during the days, wanting to play outside or play some video games with Lucas. It was a slow paced way of life for those few days, until Lucas got another phone call about meeting with Nathan's agent and their lawyer and getting down to business with everything.

They didn't want to leave him. They both worried that he would have another freak out in the middle of the day and shut down, but Karen insisted that he would be in good hands. Lucas didn't want to go by himself and they figured that it would be easier for them to grab stuff from their apartment with two of them instead of just one of them.

"When are you guys coming back?"

"We'll be back tonight."

"Why do you have to leave?"

"Jamie, we talked about this. Your mom and dad had a lot of things that we need to make sure are all taken care of. We need to find out about the house and you and money and a whole bunch of boring adult stuff. And we need to get more clothes if we are going to come back and stay for a little bit longer."

"Grandma Karen is going to be here?"

"Her and Lily and Andy are coming over to stay with you... is that okay?"

"Do you think Lily will play basketball with me?"

"She is my sister! Of course she'll play basketball with you. She loved playing basketball with you and your dad..." he says, trying to bring up Nathan in a positive way.

"Yeah, we always beat her though."

"Well, your dad was kind of in the NBA... so he could probably beat anyone."

"Yeah..." he says, a sad tone creeping into his voice.

"Hey... when I come back, I'll call Skills and the three of us can play together. Sound good?"

"Can we go to the rivercourt?"

"Yup!" he says, lifting Jamie up and swinging him around as he walks to answer the doorbell he heard while talking with his nephew.

Both the limo that was taking them to the airport and his mom's car were pulling in the driveway, and Lily was standing in the doorway with a big smile on her face.

"Hi, Jamie!"

"Hi, Lily!" he says, smiling a little bit.

After greetings were exchanged and goodbyes were said to Jamie, the pair piled in the limo and headed off to the airport, and to New York.

–

"Lucas, I'm sorry about your brother and sister in law..." Mr. Nash says extending a hand to him.

"Thank you sir."

"And this is?" he says, extending the same hand out to Peyton.

"Peyton. I'm a friend of the family as well."

"Well, it's nice to meet the two of you.... now let's sit down an talk about everything." he says, gesturing for the couple to sit down and get comfortable. "We're actually quite lucky in this case, tragedy aside, because Nathan and Haley had just tied up their affairs."

"Why would they do that?" Lucas asks confused.

"I remember Haley getting a call when she was in New York with me a few weeks ago... it was something that Nathan's agent suggested because of his new contract." Peyton explains, taking Lucas' hand in hers for a moment.

"Yes, that's right. They went a step further than money though, as Haley was one to leave no stone unturned."

Lucas laughs a bit at this, fully aware that his best friend would have made sure that absolutely everything that could be done, would be done, "Which means?"

"They had a will made, complete with information regarding all funds and assets."

"Which, I guess is why you called me here..."

"Haley and Nathan both thought that you would be the best person to contact in case of a situation, so I'm assuming that you are going to be taking care of everything?"

"Yes."

"All right, then let's get down to it?" he says, opening the paperwork.

Most of the money was set to go to Jamie, including the house and their combined savings. One savings account was set for just his schooling down the road, and another was set aside for what would be awarded from the couple's life insurance. The boy was set for life as far as anyone was concerned, and Nathan's newest contract made sure of that. When Lucas spoke to the agent briefly, he was told that half of the contract would still be paid out to Nathan Scott's name, which then made Jamie receive it.

Then came the point where Lucas held his breath. He knew what it would say, but officially, he was worried at hearing the words.

"With regards to the legal guardian of James Lucas Scott, full legal guardianship shall be given to Lucas and Peyton Scott." the lawyer reads.

Both eyes go wide as Peyton starts to cough on the water she had just taken a sip of. When she stops the coughing, she turns to Lucas with still wide eyes, "Scott?"

–

Okay, you KNEW that Lucas would end up with Jamie... that's kind of a given. And this is where my original story idea actually begins... haha... it only took me 12 chapters to get here... wow... So I'm hoping that you guys are enjoying this, because I have to admit that this has been my favorite to write thus far as a fan of anything. It just keeps coming! So yeah, let's see what happens next!

Reviews make me HAPPY!!!


	13. A Day Taking in the Changes

After the lawyer, they met with Nathan's agent briefly, and then they were back at the apartment. It seemed like ages ago when they were there last, and it seemed like things were a lot simpler back then. They hadn't exchanged many looks or words after what the lawyer had told them, almost on an information overload.

"Peyton?" he asks, pulling her down to sit beside him on their bed, "Talk to me?"

"About?"

"All of this... what's going on up in that pretty blond head of yours?"

"This was a lot to take in Luke..."

"I know that, I know... and I'm going to say something... but let me finish before you say anything?" he asks, and waits for her nod to continue, "I know that you have said that you are in this, and I know that you have been there for me and for Jamie and for the rest of my family this whole time. But... I'm offering you an out. I'm going to take Jamie. I'm going to raise him just like Nate and Haley wanted me to... but just because they put you down on that paper with my last name does not mean that you have to do this, so I don't want you to feel obligated to me or to him.. or them. You can walk away from this Peyton... you can. You didn't sign up for a family right now."

"But I did... the second I said I love you, I signed up."

"Peyton..."

"No, Luke, it's true. I want to be there with you, and I want to help you and Jamie." she says almost begging him to believe her.

All he can do is hold on to her for that moment, clinging to her in such an intimate way that her emotions started to stir. Sensing that, sensing her, he captured her lips with his, slowly kissing her like she was brand new to him.

Then, for the first time in that week, they allowed that pent up emotion to come crashing down, channeling it into their passion for each other. It was like a promise was being made with every sigh and every moan, as they made love again.

When they were laying there afterwards, she broke through the silence, "Peyton Scott?" she asks.

"That's Haley for you... being thorough."

"It was before I told her though."

"Before you told her what?"

"When you left for New York, I told you that I wanted to talk about forever again, and I told her about that, but that was just before..."

This was it... this was that moment that he was waiting for. He had his opening, but didn't know if it was okay to be doing such a thing so close to what had happened. Haley already had it written in the stars for them, so he pushed those feelings aside as he moved out of her embrace and over to his suitcase, opening the front pocket.

She sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest as she watched him, clad in only his boxers move around the room. And when he came back, he knelt down next to the bed, clutching something that she didn't see in one of his hands. He closed his eyes then, tilting his head to the heavens for a moment before smiling, and then looking back at her, changing so he was down on just one knee.

After her gasp at the subtle change, he explained why Haley had done what she did, "The week we spent on the water with my family, I brought this to show Haley, to get her opinion about if you would like it or not. Of course, in true Haley form, she flipped out, she was so excited."

He opens the ring then, watching as her tears get the best of her, threatening to fall down her cheeks in rivers, "This was my mom's ring, the one that my uncle Keith gave her when they were going to get married. And when he died and months later she took the ring off, she told me that she would hold onto it for me until I found the right person. Luckily for me, that happened so soon. I've been waiting for the right moment to do this, for you to be ready, and for me to be ready, and I don't know if it is too soon after what has happened, but I can't think of anything that would make me or them happier, so... Peyton Sawyer, will you marry me?"

"Yes..." she says, nodding with watery eyes, pulling him towards her after he places the ring on her finger. "God, Luke, I love you."

"It's not too soon?"

"No... it's not... and for the first time... I'm not scared at all about my future."

The next few hours was spent in celebration, but it was still bittersweet. As they rode the jet back to Tree Hill, they were unbelievably happy, but unsure of the timing of their new situation. Yes, it was right for them, but they weren't sure that it was the right time to share it with Jamie and the rest of the family. Not with everything that needed to be done, and the big changes that had to be made.

However, while the attention was not intended, it wasn't soon after they got home that the news made it out of the bag.

"You guys are back!" Jamie says, running up to Lucas as he enters the house.

"That we are, but do you think that you can hang out with Lily for a little bit longer while we talk to Karen and Andy about some stuff? Then we'll all go to dinner."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone..."

Ruffling his hair, he gently pushed his nephew towards the living room to encourage him to go play with his younger sister. He then gestured towards Karen and Andy, wanting them to come into the kitchen.

"So, what happened with the lawyer?" Andy says, always the one who dealt with things like that.

"Well, a lot actually." Lucas says, shaking his head with almost disbelief at the situation they were finding themselves in. "Basically, Jamie is set for life where money is concerned, and they had gone recently to get things in order because of Nathan's new basketball contract with the Bobcats. That was to our advantage in some ways, because it made them update basically everything in case of something happening."

"And what about Jamie?"

"He's ours..." Luke says, looking to a very quiet Peyton.

"Yours? As in..." Karen asks, gesturing between Lucas and Peyton.

"They wanted him to be with Peyton and I if anything ever happened."

"And you guys are okay with this? I mean this is a big deal." She says, not looking away from Peyton, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet throughout the delivery of all of this news not really meeting anyone's gaze.

"We talked about it, and can't think of anything that we would want more." Lucas says, grabbing Peyton's hand under the counter, playing with the new ring on her finger in a comforting gesture.

"Peyton?" Karen asks, the younger woman, trying to read the situation, taking Peyton's silence as hesitance.

"Huh?" she says, looking up at Karen, and then seeing her face showing doubt, "What? Oh, No! I'm more that okay with this!" she says, trying to reassure the woman.

Then Lucas looked at her, realizing that she was just trying to hide her excitement at the news that they had. In that look, he knew that they weren't going to be able to hide this very long, so they might as well just go for it, "Actually..." he starts, pulling up the hand he held under the table.

"Luke..." Peyton says, still unsure of whether or not this was the time to start telling people.

"Oh my gosh!" Karen says, standing up and running around to hug Lucas the second Peyton's hand was in sight. "You guys got engaged?!"

"Yeah, ma, we got engaged." he says, hugging her back and then laughing at Peyton's wide eyes when she did the same thing to her.

"You don't think it's too soon or the wrong time to do this?" Peyton asks, hesitantly, pulling away from his mother's grip.

"He asked me for that ring a few months ago, and has just been waiting for the right time to give it to you.... and I can't think of anything that would be better to distract from what has happened the past week than planning a wedding and celebrating a couple that Nathan and Haley both loved."

"Really?" she asks again.

"Honey, I wouldn't have given Lucas that ring for you unless I knew that it was absolutely perfect. You know the history of it, and I'm so glad that it can go to another great pair of people."

"Thank you."

"I think we're going to wait to talk to Jamie about this whole thing... we think that just explaining the fact that he's going to be with us is going to be hard enough for him."

"Don't underestimate that little boy. He loves you guys, and I think that he would actually be very happy for both of you. I understand why you would want to wait though."

"Yeah... it's just so much for him right now."

"What are you guys going to do about your living situation?" Andy asks, from his spot next to Lucas.

"We haven't figured that out yet... I can write anywhere, but I don't want Peyton to give up anything with the gallery or the record label."

"And I told him that if we had to leave New York that I would make do with everything. Running the label from here wouldn't be that difficult, and New York isn't too far from here either."

"This is where his school and friends are, so keep that in mind." Karen adds in.

"And there's the house too... I don't think that I could handle being in this house... not with all of the memories we have here, but I don't think he should be away from it."

"I would stay for a little while, but I think that starting fresh, with a new house, could be really good for him."

"Yeah..."

Of course, Jamie and Lily decide to come in during that lull in conversation, exclaiming that they were absolutely starving, and would die if they didn't get any food.

"Yeah, why don't we get some food, and then Karen and Andy can take Lily home and we can spend some time together?" Lucas says to Jamie, who picked up on something being different.

"umm... okay."

Dinner was Jamie's choice, so they stopped by Karen's cafe, which was being run by one of the women that Karen had met and befriended shortly after Lily had been born. It was the first time Peyton had actually been in the cafe, only having been to TRIC and just seeing the outside of the cafe in passing.

"This place is great!" she says, looking around and realizing that that homey feel of Lucas' childhood home carried into her small business.

"It was a big part of my life right after I had Lucas."

"Mama said that she lived here.... is that true?" Jamie asks Karen.

Laughing, Karen answers, "It was like she lived here after she and your Uncle Lucas became friends. They were here any time that I was here, and we always ate dinner together here and your mom and Uncle Lucas would do all their homework here. And later on, she worked here for me, including when she was pregnant with you," Karen says to the little boy, smiling at the memories that she had of Haley and her working at the cafe.

"Hey Aunt Peyton?" Jamie says, seeming to lose interest in what Karen was saying.

"Yeah, Jamie?" she says from his side, turning and giving him her full attention.

"You were right."

"About what?"

"It is cool to have people around that can tell me stories about them. It makes me not feel so sad when I get to hear them."

Instead of responding, she just hugged him and kissed the top of his head in a loving gesture that made Lucas look at her and smile. He really did pick a great woman... and he could understand why Haley didn't hesitate to put her with him in taking care of Jamie.

When they got back to the house, Jamie was told to get his teeth brushed and his pajamas on, and then to come back into the living room.

When he did finally get back downstairs, he sat between the two of them on the couch with an expectant look on his face. "So..."

"So, what?"

"Are we having a family meeting? This is what it's like when mama and daddy would have a family meeting."

"I guess that's exactly what this is." Lucas says, hugging the boy and then turning so he could be facing him when he spoke. "We've got some stuff that we want to talk to you about."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Well... kind of important stuff." Peyton says, making sure that he knows that she is right there with Lucas.

"Okay..." he says, with a sad look on his face and a bit of guilt creeping into his tone.

"Jamie, you didn't do anything wrong, and nothing bad is going to happen, but we need to talk about what we have to do now."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, before the accident, your mom and dad went to a man and made sure that if anything ever happened to them, someone would take care of you."

"Are you leaving? Are you going back to New York?" he asks, in an almost panicked voice.

"No! Jamie, we are going to be here with you. That's what we wanted to talk to you about. Your mom and dad wanted me and your Uncle Lucas to take care of you if anything ever happened to them."

"For how long?"

"Well, forever..." Lucas says, realizing that his nephew really has no concept of what forever actually means.

Jamie appears to be taking all this in, not really understanding the details of what was happening, but getting the basic idea of what was going on.

"Now, we aren't going to be able to replace your mom and dad, but we are going to take care of you the best that we can, and whenever you need anything, you can come to us."

"Who's going to tuck me in at night, and take me to school, and make me breakfast in the morning?"

"Both of us are going to be there to do that."

"So you're going to be just like a mom and dad, only you're Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas..." he says out loud to make sense of it.

"Yup." Lucas says, patting him on the head as he looks between the two adults.

"Is that okay with you Jamie?"

Continuing to look between them, he's lost in thought, and then, "Even though you guys are going to be like mama and daddy, can I still miss them?"

"Yes you can, and you know what?" Lucas says, and then continues when he quirks an eyebrow in such a way that he looks identical to his mother, "we'll miss them with you."

"Okay..."

"Okay?" Peyton says, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah..." he says, and then looks confused, "When do we move to New York?"

"Well, we were actually thinking that we would stay here for a few more weeks, and then we'd try to find a new house for the three of us to live in. How does that sound?"

"Are we going to stay in Tree Hill?"

"It would keep us close to Lily and Grandma Karen and Andy, and you could stay in the same school and not have to move away from any of your friends."

"What about you guys and your friends?" he asks in such an innocent way, showing the big heart that Lucas knew he got from both of his parents.

"Don't worry about us, Jamie, we will be just fine." Peyton says, just laughing at his concern.

After talking some more about the logistics of things, and deciding to share with him the news of their engagement, it was time for everyone to get some sleep after the long day.

When Peyton crawled into the guest bed with Lucas, she curled into his side, resting her head on what she viewed as her spot on his chest and looking up at him. "What's up wily?" he asks.

"It was a good day today, Luke."

"Yeah, it was."

"You think Jamie is really okay with all this?"

"I think that he knew that he was going to be taken care of, and I think that he's glad that it is us that are going to be taking care of him."

"The engagement?"

"He already views you as family, so for him, all it will be is a big party. What kid isn't okay with a party?"

"Which reminds me that I need to call Brooke."

"She already knows..."

"What! How did everyone know that I was going to be the next Scott before I did?"

"Did they really though?" he says with a knowing glance.

"I guess not... I've known... I've been scared to admit it, but I've known."

"And now..."

"I told you... not a hint of being scared. I'm excited, and I'm ready."

"Instant family huh?" he says in a tone that suggested that he was hesitant to be happy about the situation.

"Yeah..." she says, still with a smile on her face, but a far off look in her eyes as she is trying to remember something. "Hey Luke?"

"yeah?"

"Right before you proposed, what did you do? You paused... but you had this look on your face..."

"I was telling Haley..."

"What?" she asks softly.

"I told Haley the day that I showed her the ring that she would be the first one to know that I was going to ask you, so I was telling Haley."

They sit for a minute after that, collecting each of their thoughts from everything that happened that day and the past week.

"I would give anything to bring them back to you and to Jamie, Lucas, I would.."

"I know that. And it's going to be okay... I know it will."

"And whatever happens, you know I'm gonna love you forever, Lucas Scott."

He chooses to kiss her, in a gesture that was almost a promise for the two of them and their future together.

–

Okay, I'm currently writing this on a car trip... don't worry I'm not driving. Though that would be pretty dang impressive... and dangerous... if I was, wouldn't it? This one is a bit longer, and I hope you all don't think that it was hokey or anything! I love these characters, and I feel like I know where I'm going with this, so it makes me happy.

Still... even though I have my own ideas... let me know what you are thinking... review review review!


	14. A Good Day

The first few weeks of this new life was hard, Peyton trying to tie up some loose ends as far as moving the record label to Tree Hill as a base, and Lucas attempting to find a new place for them to live.

And then there was Jamie. He had gone through so much, and was doing an absolutely wonderful job of staying strong, but he had started having nightmares that past week, waking up and screaming for Nathan and Haley. When they talked to his pediatrician, she suggested some therapy, reasoning that he may be having his memory come back of the actual crash. So it was long nights and work-filled days, but the newly engaged couple had worked through it, and save a few moments, Jamie seemed to be doing pretty well.

Karen stopped by the house that night and very easily changed the mood, giving Peyton something that she would be ever so grateful for.

"Hey!" Peyton says as she notices the older woman walking through the door.

"Hey yourself... what are you up to?"

"Not much, just getting some stuff done while the boys are away..."

"Basketball?"

"Good job!" Peyton says, smiling at the woman and how well she knows her son. "That seems like it's all they do..."

"Yeah, well, that is something that they have done for a long time, and that river court has some good memories with Lucas and Nathan, so that doesn't surprise me that they would spend a great deal of time there."

"So, what did you need?"

"Well, I've got something that I'd like to propose to you... a sort of business deal, if you would."

"Okay, I'm listening..."

"Well, this is really more of a field trip occasion. Can I get you to come with me?"

"Instead of cleaning the house... really hard decision...." she says, laughing and grabbing a jacket and her purse.

The two were then standing in TRIC, a place that Peyton had visited before a few times on her trips to Tree Hill with Lucas. Only, instead of being with the rest of the patrons, they were off to the side standing in front of a large steel sliding door.

"This is the field trip?"

"Yup." she says, opening up the door, to reveal a large open space.

"What is this?"

"Well, currently it is a big open space that I have no need for, but hopefully, it is the new space for Red Bedroom Records' base of operations."

"What?"

"I want you to have it, Peyton."

"Karen, I can't just take this from you..."

"It is a waste right now... there is no use in me having it. And if you and Luke do chose to make Tree Hill your home, then you need a place to work from. I was even thinking that you could put a studio in too, so the artists could actually meet you here, and it would be more personal."

"This is too much..."

"In return, I would ask you to do me one other favor, aside from taking care of my little boy of course."

"Anything."

"I was thinking that with all of your experience after being in L.A. for so long, and with your incredible ability to sweet talk new bands, that you could be in charge of setting up bands to play TRIC."

"Now that sounds like a fair compromise."

"So... you'll do it?"

"I would love to, and I think that you're right... this is a great place for the label to grow."

Instead of shaking on it, they embraced and grabbed a quick drink before heading back to the house.

When Lucas came home, he came home happy, bouncing in the door and exclaiming that he and Jamie had won best two out of three versus Skills.

"Well that's great, but where is Jamie?"

"Skills offered to take him for the rest of the day, play video games and whatnot with him. He used to watch Jamie all the time when Nathan and Haley were around, so I thought that some normalcy would do him good."

"Yeah... you're right."

"And you know what that means, right?"

"That I have even more time to get laundry done?!" she says overly-excited, but dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, I had other plans for you, actually..." he says, getting closer to her and whispering in her ear in a seducing way that had her knees buckling.

"And what would those plans be?" she replies, turning to face him so their bodies were forced against each other.

They both lean in to close the distance between them, locking lips and opening up to each other like they used to. After a few minutes of this dance they did, Lucas breaks free from her, smiling at the way her eyes stay closed and flutter open slowly, as if she was a little too breathless.

"I have a surprise for you."

"Really?"

"Yep...can you come with me?" he asks, gesturing around at the house to ask if there was anything absolutely urgent that she needed to get done.

"Well, I've already had one field trip, why not make it another one?"

"What do you mean?" he asks.

She tells him the story about his mom's gift as they get into the car and start heading towards his old neighborhood in Tree Hill. Assuming that they were going to his mom's house, she didn't think twice of where they were going. But when they stopped in front of a red Brick house with a white front porch and windows, she was confused.

"Lucas, who is here?"

"Well... if you think it's okay, I was thinking us."

"What?!" she says getting out of the car to get a better look at the outside of the house.

"I didn't sign anything or anything like that, and it isn't even officially on the market yet, but the woman who owns it is a friend of my mom's and she heard that we might be looking soon, so she found me at the rivercourt today and chatted with me about it. She said that she wanted me to bring you by tonight so you could see it."

"Lucas... this is a beautiful house."

"It's only a few blocks over from mom, so when they are here during the school year, Jamie can be around Lily, and mom and Andy can watch him if we need it. It's not too far from Nathan and Haley's house either, so it isn't like a total change."

"Okay..."

"You wanna see the inside?"

"Yeah... I do..."

The woman with whom he had spoken to answered the doorbell quickly, ushering the young couple inside and giving them the grand tour of the place. All in all it had four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, an unfinished basement, and a great backyard. They were all things that you would want in a house for any family.

"What do you think?" the woman asks Peyton.

"It is certainly beautiful. You have a lovely home."

"Well, thank you sweetheart. It would do my heart right to see a beautiful young couple move in to it after I leave. Filling it with children and memories and home... I would love for you two to have it."

"Mrs. Anderson, I think that Peyton and I need to think about it for a few days before we make our decision..."

"You kids let me know before the end of the week then, and then I'm going to put it on the market...Lucas... your mom and I have known each other for years, since you were a little baby... and I know about what you two are doing for that little boy... The house would be loved, and would have love in it, and that's important to me."

"Well thank you Mrs. --" Lucas starts, but is quickly interrupted.

"We'll take it!" Peyton exclaims loudly.

He turns to her quickly at the outburst, his mouth and his eyes wide, "Peyton can we talk for a minute?"

He drags her out the door, chuckling the whole way at her exclamation. "Are you sure about this?"

"Luke, it is absolutely perfect. Jamie would love the backyard, we can finish the basement to make a studio for me and a writing space for you, or we could use one of the bedrooms upstairs for that... and the kitchen is gorgeous, it's just...perfect. And I've always wanted a house with a porch..."

"Really?"

"Yeah...but I think that Jamie would like to see it before we decide on anything. Can we go get him?"

He kisses her then, always amazed that she had the heart she did. She runs back into the house to tell the older woman that they were going to come back with Jamie before making a final decision, and he was left to wait outside looking at the house that could be theirs very soon.

The front porch would be perfect for late night chats after dinner, and the family room big enough to have everyone over and to watch the kids play around. She was right about turning the basement into a studio and writing area, so they could work near each other. Then there were the rooms upstairs. It was a little early to be thinking about the possibilities for the rooms upstairs, but he wondered if she had thought about the same thing.

He was brought out of his journey to the future when he heard the door open and saw her walking out to him.

"This is it..." he says, after she reaches him.

"Why?" she says, wondering at his declaration.

"Because I could see you walk out of that door for the rest of my life... and it's just that simple."

She smiles, kissing him lightly on the lips, "Let's go get Jamie."

Bringing Jamie was something that, while necessary, they were a bit worried about after they thought about it. He seemed okay with the idea, and they had made it clear to him from the start that they were going to move after they got settled into a routine and he felt ready to do so.

By the end of touring the house, he had picked out his bedroom, and said that he thought that it was a nice house.

"Are you sure Jamie?" Peyton asks, not wanting to push him.

"Yeah... it isn't as big as mine and Mama and Daddy's, but it's cool. I like the backyard."

"Is there anything that you don't like about it?"

"Can I bring my swingset for the back yard?"

"You most certainly can..."

"And... the basement is weird."

"Why do you think the basement is weird?"

"It's kind of scary." he says, looking down at his admission.

"Well, what if we said that we were going to turn it into a studio for Aunt Peyton and a writing room for me? Would that make it less scary?"

"Yeah...but what about me?"

"Maybe we could make it a video game room for you too... how about that?"

His eyes light up at the idea, excited that he would be included in the plans. "When do we have to move in?"

The couple laugh as they then turn to talk with the woman about what needed to be done and got an idea of the timeline in which she wanted to move out and for them to move in. It would be another two or three weeks, and they were perfectly okay with that, because that gave Lucas time to get his apartment up for sale and arrange for movers to get his furniture from New York.

They were all smiles after the meeting with the woman, and walked the few blocks over to Karen and Andy's to share the news, and even Jamie was excited about the new house, sharing with Lily about his new room and what they were going to do to the basement.

When they finally got back to the house, Jamie was beat... dosing in the back seat when they pulled in the driveway. Lucas picked him up, carrying him into his bedroom to sleep the rest of the night.

Peyton was the first one to hear him that night.

"Mama!" he shouted out into the night, clutching a blanket towards him with his eyes squeezed shut. "Mama!!"

Peyton ran into the room, and sat on the edge of the bed, "Jamie..."

He keeps tossing and turning, calling out as she tries to wake him up gently, "Jamie, honey, it's Aunt Peyton... wake up."

She pulls him towards her, trying to calm his thrashing, and he wakes with a start, "Mama?"

He looks at her with confusion as he opens his eyes and adjusts to the darkness in the room.

"No, Jamie, It's Aunt Peyton...you're okay..." she says, still holding on to him and trying to calm him down.

"It was my fault..." he says, trying to get closer to her, not noticing Lucas coming into the room.

"Jamie, nothing was your fault..."

"It was my fault they were arguing."

"No, honey, this was not your fault... it was an accident."

"No..." he says, crying into her shoulder.

"Jamie, did you have a nightmare?" Lucas finally asks, putting a hand on the boy's back alongside Peyton's.

He turns in her arms to look at his Uncle and nods. "We were driving back from a party for Daddy's team, and I said that I wanted to stay up, but Mama said no."

"Okay..."

"And then Daddy said that I should, and I told Mama that he was right, and then she was mad at him and they were fighting." he says, starting to get more and more agitated as he continues the story, "and then I heard a really loud noise, and then I can't remember."

"It's okay, Jamie, It's okay... we're here." Peyton says soothingly.

"No! I don't want you! I want them!" he turns away from both of them, crawling back into his bed and clutching on to two things that they didn't know he had taken... Nathan's jersey and Haley's dog from when she was a girl. "I want them!"

Peyton and Lucas sit with the small boy, not knowing what they could do, but knowing that they weren't going to be the ones that could comfort him tonight. After about ten minutes, his tears get the best of him, and his body finally wins the fight for sleep.

She gets up without a word, a few tears streaming down her cheeks, and he follows her. When they reach the end of the hall, she goes straight for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, and he is left alone.

Maybe this day wasn't as good as they thought it was. Maybe it was all too much... for all of them.

–

Okay, so some of you may have figured this out... but the house that they might buy is Peyton's house from the show. I don't know anything about how many bedrooms that it has, so I made that up, but we know it has a basement thanks to the Psycho Derek episodes... man those were good.

Thank you to everyone for reviewing. I've enjoyed hearing what people are thinking about and how people are liking the series. Tell your friends!! hehe... and keep reviewing!


	15. A Day of Growing

He waited for her to come out of the bathroom, hearing her every now and then through the door as he sat there. She needed her space, and he got that, but it was hard hearing her, knowing that he was feeling the same way that she was.

He finally couldn't take the waiting anymore, and knocked quietly on the door, "Peyton?"

Getting no answer, he let himself in and found her sitting on the floor with her back up against the wall, her head in her hands and her face hidden from view. When he said her name again, she looked up, tears still in her eyes, and he took a seat next to her, letting her lean over onto his shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just... I get it. I remember all that from when I was little. I blamed myself for what happened to my mom, and then I turned everyone away... even my dad. I just didn't know that it hurt him so bad when I did that, you know?"

"How long did it take you?"

"I don't even know."

They sit in silence for a while, her tears stopping and just a few sniffles heard here and there.

"I didn't think it would be this hard... I mean, I thought that today was a good day."

"It was! Luke, it really was, but maybe it is too early to be thinking about moving..."

"How about we buy the house, but we wait to move into it until Jamie is ready?"

She nods, thinking about something else entirely, "I think we need to get him in to see someone..."

"Like a shrink?"

"Yeah... he needs to talk to someone if he won't talk to us. I know that we were against it at first, but..."

"I'll call first thing in the morning... which is not too far off of right now, so why don't we try to get a little sleep..."

"Yeah, okay..." she says, motioning for him to help her up after he stands next to her.

"Peyton, you are really amazing for being here with me, through all of this. I couldn't do this without you, you know that?"

"Well, seeing as how you weren't the one in the bathroom like a blubbering idiot, I can see that I'm a great big help to you."

"No... every time he's needed comfort these past few weeks, it's been you... you've been the one he has run to, not me."

"Luke, I'm--"

"No... don't be sorry. I love that he trusts you that much. I love that you love him enough to be there for him. He needs you just as much as he needs me, Peyton, and a lesser woman would have ran right when the phone rang... you didn't."

"I wouldn't."

"I know." he says, lifting the covers back again, laying down on the bed and putting his arms around her and shutting his eyes, "I love you."

"I love you too."

When Lucas finally woke up, it was not because of an alarm or the sun, but the sounds of tiny feet walking into the guest bedroom that they were staying in. When he opened his eyes, he saw blue ones just like his staring back at him, wide and frightened.

"Are you leaving me now?"

He sits up in bed quietly, pulling Jamie up to sit with him, "What?"

"I'm sorry..."

"Jamie, what are you talking about, buddy, you haven't done anything wrong."

"It was my fault."

"Jamie, it was _not_ your fault. We don't blame you for anything that happened, and you didn't do anything."

He glances over at Peyton's still sleeping form and then turns back to Lucas, "Is she mad at me?"

"Why would she be mad at you?"

"Because I yelled at you guys last night."

"That's okay, Jamie, you were upset, and we understand that... in fact your Aunt Peyton and I were talking and we think that we are going to hold off moving into that new house for a while."

"But why?"

"Well, we think that you might need to stay here a little longer."

"This house is sad..."

"It isn't all sad, is it?"

"No, I guess not." he says, leaning against his Uncle.

Lucas grabs hold of him and moves over so he can lay down in between him and Peyton, "We still think it might be good to stay awhile.... and we were going to go talk to somebody who can maybe help you with your nightmares, too. Would that be okay?"

"Can't I just talk to you and Aunt Peyton?" he asks, confused for a minute.

"You can always talk to us, but we want you to talk to someone else about it. It's a special doctor that helps kids with nightmares."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Will you and Peyton come with me?"

"I'm sure that we can do that."

"Okay." he says, pulling the covers up and around him.

When Peyton woke up an hour later, she had small arm across her neck and gently plucked it off, turning to see that the small arm was attached to her soon to be nephew who was currently sleeping practically on top of her fiance.

She didn't know when he had come in, but knew that this was a good thing, remembering the things that he said last night. He still trusted them and needed them, and that was going to be important in the coming years.

"Aunt Peyton?" he says, following her into the kitchen without her knowledge.

"Yeah, Jamie?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday."

"Jamie, it is okay... your Uncle Lucas and I aren't going anywhere, so you don't need to worry about a thing, okay?"

"Yeah... can I have cereal for breakfast?"

"You most certainly may have cereal for breakfast!" she says, nodding her head and reaching for a bowl for him.

"Will you watch cartoons with me again?"

"James Lucas Scott, there is no one that I'd rather watch cartoons with than you..."

"Really? Not even Uncle Lucas?" he asks, wagging his eyebrows in a silly suggestive way.

"Nope... you are my main man when it comes to cartoons. Uncle Lucas is boring and old... he doesn't appreciate them like you do."

She finishes getting his cereal and they eat in the living room watching some cartoons together until Lucas comes back in after grabbing a shower and calling Jamie's pediatrician and then the special psychologist that she recommended.

"What do you say we go swing by the park for an hour or so, and then go chat with that doctor I was telling you about Jamie?"

"Is it a nice doctor?"

"He seemed really nice on the phone, and he said that me and your Aunt Peyton can come in with you until you feel like you can talk to him on your own."

He thinks for a minute, "Okay..."

So they got ready for their day, and hung out at the park for a little while, with Peyton and Lucas finding their younger jungle gym personalities and chasing each other and Jamie around. When they got back to where they had placed their bags, ready to head off to the doctor, an older woman stopped them.

"I have to say, that your little family was just too fun to watch..." she says, obviously not knowing the dynamics of the family she was speaking to, and then looking up to Lucas and Peyton, "and your little boy is just the cutest thing!"

Peyton smiles at the woman in a kind gesture, but the two adults just held their breath for a moment while finishing gathering up their things. Jamie hadn't said anything, so they thought that it best to just not talk about it, "Let's get over to that doctor then, all right Jamie?"

"yeah..." he says, not as energetic as he was just a few minutes later.

When they got to the doctor's office, it put them a bit at ease. There were toys all over the waiting room, a tv with some video game systems hooked up. There weren't a lot of people in the room, but it seemed just more inviting than anything.

The doctor stepped out just ten minutes after they had arrived, bending down and offering a hand to Jamie before acknowledging Lucas and Peyton.

"Dr. V., It's nice to meet you guys..."

"It's nice to meet you too. Jamie's pediatrician recommended you, and we can see that you run a great place here." Lucas says, extending a hand to the man.

"Well, we like everyone to be at ease when they come here." he says, and then bends down to speak with Jamie, "Hey Jamie, why don't you go play some video games or something for a little while so I can talk to your Aunt and Uncle a little while.... we'll come get you when we're ready."

He shrugs, silently turning and taking a spot on the floor to play one of the video games in the waiting room, as Lucas and Peyton are taken into another room with the doctor.

"So, how are you two holding up? Lucas, you told me a little bit about the situation, but tell me more. What makes you think that Jamie needs some more help?"

"He blames himself."

"Okay... and what does he blame himself for."

"Apparently, when they were driving that night, the last thing that Jamie remembers was them arguing right before the crash."

"And when did he tell you that he was remembering?"

"He had a nightmare last night, and Peyton heard him calling out in his sleep."

Turning to Peyton, he gestures for her to continue.

"When I got in there he was screaming and thrashing around, so I tried to wake him up, shaking him and saying his name. He didn't realize that I was in there until I held him up to me to get him to stop."

"What was he screaming?"

"He was screaming for his mother."

"And you went in there?" the doctor asks, in a way that Peyton takes offense to.

"I was supposed to let him just lay there screaming?!"

"No... no... I just... Mrs. Scott."

"It is Sawyer... we are not married yet."

"Oh, I see."

"Haley and Nathan knew that I was planning on proposing soon, so when papers were drawn up, they included Peyton's name with my own to become Jamie's legal guardian."

"Okay, and how close are the two of you to Jamie?"

"I was there when he was born and lived with Haley and Nathan while we were working through undergrad. I have a sister his age, so I was always there for both of them. Jamie and I have always been really close. Even when I moved to New York, I still came home nearly every other week to see them."

"And Peyton?"

"Lucas and I started dating seven and a half months ago, and I met Jamie and Nathan and Haley about two months after we started dating. We've gone on vacation together, and they've come and stayed with us in New York. His mother and I grew very close in this short time."

"Peyton is the one that Jamie goes to... she's the one he runs to if he's scared." Lucas says, taking her hand in his.

"Why do you think that is?" the doctor asks, curious himself.

"My mother died when I was around his age, and after we told Jamie, I shared that with him. He asks me about it, and if certain things that he is feeling are okay, and how I worked through it... I think he knows that I understand it."

"And you and Haley had grown close?"

"Yes."

"So, even though you were a newer addition to the family, he still viewed you as that... family."

"Yes." she says, realizing that he really did see her as that.

"How did Jamie react to the news that the two of you were going to be his guardians?"

"He seemed okay with it. He asked us if he could still miss them even though we were going to be like his mom and dad now."

"Did you explain the situation to him in that way?"

"No... we told him that we would do everything for him just like a mom and a dad would, only we would be his Aunt and Uncle."

"And he seemed okay with that?"

"He asked us when we were all going to move to New York, so I viewed it as him being okay with the situation."

The doctor laughs at the statement, agreeing that it seemed like Jamie was at ease with the people that were going to be taking care of him. "So, what made you decide now to bring him?"

"We were considering buying a new house in Tree Hill, and brought him to see it, and he seemed excited. Then last night, like we said, he had a nightmare and told us that it was his fault. We think that he's starting to remember bits and pieces from the accident. When we were trying to comfort him, he turned us away, claiming that he didn't need us and that he wanted Nathan and Haley. Then, this morning, he made sure that we weren't going to leave him. He seemed scared that by turning us away last night, that we were going to walk out on him...." Lucas says, trailing off.

"We're just worried that there is more going on up there than what he's sharing or going to share with us. He's a great kid, and we're worried that as he starts remembering more of this accident, he is going to become more and more scared, pulling away again." Peyton adds after Lucas.

The doctor gets up, and walks to the door, calling for Jamie to come into the room. When he comes in, he sits next to Peyton in one of the chairs lined up in front of the doctor's chair.

"So, Jamie... I've been talking with your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton, and I've got to say... you are one lucky kid to have such a cool Aunt and Uncle."

"I know... they are pretty cool." he says, smiling in their direction, but not letting the smile reach his eyes the way it normally does.

"So you are glad that your mom and dad chose them to take care of you?" he asks, knowing that the boy would say yes based on what was already discussed.

"Yeah... my Uncle Luke has been there since I was a baby, and Mama says that Aunt Peyton was the best thing ever for Uncle Lucas, so I like her a lot too."

"Well, that's good." he says, laughing at the boys verbal skills, very advanced for his age. "Can you tell me about your mom and dad?"

"ummm..." he says, searching for words and looking over to Lucas and Peyton.

"How about this," the doctor says, after seeing Jamie struggle with this task, "How about you tell me one thing that you think your dad did better than anyone else and one thing that your mom did better than anyone else?"

"Daddy played basketball better than anyone..."

"Really? Even better than Michael Jordan?"

"Probably... he was really good. And he is the point guard for the Charlotte Bobcats... so he's really famous too."

Laughing again, Dr. V. asks him about his mother.

"Mama sang better than anyone else. She and Aunt Peyton were working on recording an album together... Aunt Peyton gave me a CD of the songs they did so I can still hear her sing to me."

"Well that was really nice of her."

"Yeah... she's always trying to make me feel better."

"Are you sad a lot?"

"Sometimes." he says, hesitantly, not wanting the adults to see that he wasn't okay.

"That's okay... to be sad, Jamie."

He looks up with a guilt in his eyes. It was as if he was afraid to feel sad for losing his parents, still blaming himself for something that was out of his control.

"What makes you sad? That they aren't here with you now? That you miss them?"

He doesn't say anything for a long time, just playing with the hem of his shirt in a nervous action.

"No."

"Okay, then why are you sad?"

"Cause it's my fault..."

–

Okay, so Jamie's got a lot to work through, and we are going to get a better glimpse into what happened leading up to the accident... I hope that's okay with all of you. I love all the feedback that I'm getting, as it really does mean a great deal to me. Thank you all so much for reading this. I am having a GREAT time writing it, and it just seems to be that my fingers are doing the walking and then I look back over what I read and I'm like "okay... that works... hope they don't kill me out there in fic land."

More Leyton happiness will eventually be on the way as well, but just as the beginning of their relationship went slow... expect this developing engagement into marriage to be slow too... can't give away too much right off the bat.


	16. Planning the Big Day

That next week, Jamie decides that it is okay to talk to the doctor by himself, but insists that Lucas and Peyton come with him just in case.

"Jamie, are you ready to come in and talk to me for a little bit?" Dr. V. asks, gesturing for the boy to step in to his office.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

When they sit down, Jamie starts a line of questioning that would make any other six year old proud, "Why are you a doctor?"

"Because I like to help kids like you..."

"Oh. How old are you?"

"I'm forty three."

"Wow! That's old!"

"Well, thank you Jamie..." the doctor says with a bit of sarcasm in attempt to see if the young boy understands that.

"Yeah, Yeah, you shouldn't ask about someone's age." he replies, putting just as much sarcasm into his voice back at the doctor.

The doctor laughs at that, realizing that the young boy is actually quite smart for his age, "Who told you that?"

"My mom."

"That's a good piece of advice! Did she tell you anything else like that?"

"How long do you have to be in school to be a doctor?" he asks, completely avoiding the question that was asked.

"Well, you have to finish high school and then college and then medical school."

"That is a LOT of school. I don't think I want to be a doctor."

"Do you want to be a teacher, like your mom? Or maybe a basketball player like your dad?"

"I like basketball a lot, and Uncle Lucas and my Uncle Skills and I play all the time at the river court. Do you play basketball?"

"I play with my friends, but I'm definitely not as good as your dad...." he says, trying to bring up his parents again, but not getting a response, "Can we talk about your mom and dad, Jamie?"

"I don't want to."

"Okay... I just thought that it would be neat to hear about them."

"Yeah... that's what I like, too."

"What do you mean?"

"Aunt Peyton told me that what makes people happy after losing someone is when other people can tell stories about them. She and Uncle Lucas and everybody tell me funny stories about them all the time. She was right about them... they make me happy."

"Can you tell me a happy story?"

"I don't really want to." he says, looking back to the ground again.

Worried that this young boy's childhood was not as sparkling as everyone thought, he pressed on, "Do you have a lot of happy stories? Or are there too many sad stories?"

"I just don't want to talk about them."

"What do you want to do?"

He thinks for a moment, "Can we talk about Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton?"

"Sure. What would you like to talk about?"

"They're getting married."

"Do you not like that?"

"I like that, but I feel bad..."

"Why do you feel bad?"

"Because all my friends had moms and dads and then they had the babies, just like Mama and Daddy, but they have me, and they had to move away from New York, and they're sad."

"Is that what they said?"

"No..."

"Well, Did you tell them that you thought about this?"

"No..."

"Why not?"

"Because then they'll leave..."

"Why do you think they'll leave, Jamie?"

"I don't know..."

As he is sharing this idea, the timer goes off, signaling that their time together was up, so they both stand up and walk over to the door. Before opening it, the doctor bends down to Jamie's level, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I think that you should tell your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton how you feel. I'm positive that they won't leave you. They love you too much for that Jamie."

"How do you know?"

He opens the door to reveal Lucas and Peyton, sitting at the chairs reading, every now and then looking at each other and smiling. "Because they do things like come with you to see me and make sure that you feel safe after you have a nightmare."

Peyton is the first to realize that the door has opened, and Jamie watches as she puts her book into her purse and stands up, smiling at him.

"Yeah." Jamie says, smiling at the doctor, getting just a little better, before walking over to Lucas and Peyton.

The three wave at the doctor before walking out of the room, and the doctor goes to his computer to research a few things about Nathan and Haley Scott.

When they got home, to all of their surprise, Brooke was sitting on the front step with a suitcase waiting for them to get home.

Getting out of the car, Peyton goes to hug her best friend, "Brooke! What are you doing here?"

"I came to see my main man," she says, ruffling Jamie's hair as he walks up with his uncle, "and I thought that we could start talking about the wedding!"

"I thought we were going to wait to start talking about the wedding until everything calmed down around here..." Peyton says, tilting her head to acknowledge Jamie.

"When is the wedding?" Jamie asks from his spot between Peyton and Lucas.

"Actually, we don't know when the wedding is going to be, which is why we were waiting to start the planning."

"Can it be in March?" Jamie asks.

"Why do you say March, Jamie?"

"Cause March has March Madness and St. Patricks Day and Spring Break... it's a cool month."

The two adults laugh and Brooke just nods her head quickly to agree with the young boy.

Lucas and Peyton look at each other, and then smile down at Jamie, "March it is!"

When they get into the house, Brooke grabs Peyton, ushering her into the guest bedroom, leaving Jamie and Lucas to fend for themselves.

"Thanks for helping us with a wedding date buddy..." Luke says once they sit down on the couch together.

"Are you excited about marrying Peyton?"

"Of course I am! That's why I asked her."

"When you get married, are you gonna have babies?"

Lucas' jaw just drops, not knowing where this line of questioning came from and honestly not knowing how exactly he should go about answering the question just asked.

"ummm..."

"Because you can!" Jamie says too quickly.

"Jamie, what's this about?" Lucas says, turning on the couch to face the boy.

Avoiding the question, Jamie decides that now is a good time for another story, "Will you tell me about mama and daddy's wedding?"

Knowing that he was avoiding the question, Lucas laughs and asks him, "Which one?"

"What!? There was more than one?!"

"Yup... your mom and dad never did anything normal..."

"Why did they get married two times?"

"The first time they got married, we were in high school, and they were in love. And somehow, your mom convinced your grandma and grandpa James that they were ready to get married."

"What did Grandma Deb say?"

"Your dad didn't even ask them about it... so they just went ahead and got married on the beach, and then me and the rest of the Raven's team threw them a big party after we found out."

"Sweet!" Jamie says excitedly. "Does that mean that there is going to be a big party when you and Aunt Peyton get married?"

"Oh yeah, and if Brooke has anything to do with it, it will go on for days!" Lucas says, leaning in to say the last part in Jamie's ear.

"Awesome!"

"What's so awesome in here?" Peyton says, walking up behind the couch.

"Nothing... Uncle Lucas was just telling me about mama and daddy's two weddings."

Peyton just raises an eyebrow at Lucas, "They had two weddings?"

"Long story."

"I'll bet."

"What's up with you two?"

"The Brooke is hungry, and if we don't feed it, it might go crazy..." she says rolling her eyes.

Jamie clears his throat, causing Lucas and Peyton to turn their attention back to him, "The Jamie is hungry too..."

Laughing, Lucas grabs onto him, tickling his sides and getting Jamie giggling like he hadn't in weeks.

Then the group went out for lunch, Jamie choosing to sit with Brooke, who was still talking wedding plans. However, the plans were having nothing to do with Lucas and Peyton, who were just watching Brooke and Jamie talk animatedly about the reception.

"So it's just a big party?!"

"Yup, and there will be really good food too."

"Can there be chocolate?" Jamie asks her seriously.

"Oooh! Good idea! We could have a chocolate fountain!"

"Yeah, and can the cake be chocolate too? Do they have cakes at weddings?"

"They sure do buddy, and you my little friend are going to help me pick it out..."

As the two continued talking, Peyton and Lucas just smiled, watching how easily they seemed to get along after only meeting a few times.

"You realize that this whole wedding is going to be planned by my best friend and our nephew, right?" Peyton says, resting her head on Lucas' shoulder.

"Maid of Honor and Best Man... I guess it's their right."

"Best Man? Really?"

"Nathan would have been my best man, so I don't think that I could pick anyone better than Jamie to fill in for that role."

She kisses him, letting her lips linger on his for a few moments before breaking away. This of course led to another kiss, with Lucas pulling her back.

"Kid here!" Jamie says loudly, blocking his eyes.

"eewww, yeah, do you guys have to do that here?" Brooke says, covering her eyes as well.

"Well, we had to do something while the Maid of Honor and Best Man planned the wedding." Lucas says, throwing his hands on the table.

"Maid of Honor?" Brooke says, questioning Peyton.

"If you would..." Peyton says, shrugging.

"You bet your ass, I would P. Sawyer!" she says, standing up to hug Peyton.

"What's a Best Man?"

"You have to help me with all of the important groom stuff, like making sure that I look really good that day, and making sure that I don't run away from Peyton."

Jamie's eyes widen as he thinks about this responsibility, and then he turns to look Peyton in the eye, "Don't worry Aunt Peyton, Uncle Lucas will be there."

She smiles at him, "Thanks Jamie."

"So I can count on you?" Lucas asks him.

"Yup!"

"Good, cause you know... I was going to ask your dad to be my best man, and now, I can't think of anybody else who I would want to be there but you, Jamie."

"Oh..." Jamie says, getting quiet. "Are we done with lunch?"

The adults all share a few looks before Peyton speaks up, "Yeah, we should probably be getting back to the house. You've got school tomorrow, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

The ride home was a quiet one, no one knowing what to say with Jamie's mood suddenly shifting from the happy excited kid that he was earlier in the afternoon. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing quietly in his room, with Peyton and Lucas checking in on him every now and then.

After the four of them had dinner, Lucas told Jamie to get into his pajamas and get ready for bed.

"Yeah, you need to get some sleep... cause right after school, you are going to help me with this wedding pal!" Brooke says, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Okay." he says, silently walking back to his room.

"Wow." Brooke says, standing to help Peyton and Lucas clear the table.

"Maybe we should cool it on the wedding plans..." Peyton says.

"No! I think that he was really enjoying himself with Brooke... it was my fault for bringing up Nathan."

"Luke, the doctor said that we should be trying to get him to talk about them more, don't beat yourself up about that."

"Why don't I pick him up from school tomorrow?"

"What?"

"Yeah, and he and I can go out and about and we can bring back dinner."

"Brooke, you don't have to do that."

"I know, but I want to."

"I don't think that it's such a good idea." Lucas says, looking down the hall.

"I think he needs to be away from you guys for a while. I mean, think about it. You guys remind him of them all the time, and yeah that's good, but maybe the kid needs a break. I didn't know Haley and Nathan that well, and if he gives me an opening then I can play it off as that to get him talking. But maybe it'll help him get free for a little while."

"She's got a point Luke." Peyton says, leaning against the counter and staring off into space.

He nods, and then leave the kitchen to see where Jamie is.

Walking down the hall, he finds the boy's light is off and he is asleep in the bed, clutching his two prized possessions close to him. He stood there for a moment, taking in the sight, not knowing what to do.

"We'll figure it out." Peyton says, coming up behind him and snaking her arms around his middle.

"I know, but it's hard."

"I didn't ever think it was going to be easy."

"When you were little, with your mom... did you ever just ask why?"

"Of course I did, and I do to this day..."

"I wish that I could help him with that."

"You are helping him Luke, it's just fresh. It's going to take some time."

–

So sad.... right? It's okay though guys, we'll have some progress with Jamie, and the wedding and all that lovely stuff, cause I can't stay sad forever, right? Or can I....mwah ha ha! Just kidding!

Anyways... hope that you enjoyed this installment, and I'll keep loving your reviews!! Keep reading and Keep reviewing!


	17. A Day That Brings New Truths

"Hey Brooke?" Jamie asks the next day while they are out in Tree Hill.

"Yeah, buddy?"

"How long have you known Aunt Peyton?"

"For a really long time, since we were just about your age."

"Wow! That is a long time." he says, then sitting and contemplating that idea for a minute, "Is Uncle Lucas your friend now too?"

"Yeah... I like him and Peyton together. They love each other very much."

He stays silent again, taking in what she said, trying to come up with questions in his head about some of the things he talked about with the doctor. "When they get married, what's going to happen?"

"Well, what do you mean?"

"Uncle Skills says that when people get married, then they want to start a family and have babies... Are they going to have babies??"

"I don't know, buddy. I think they might like to have one or two. Why?"

He shrugs his shoulders.

"Sometimes people do that, but sometimes people wait awhile to have babies after they get married."

"Oh..."

She regards the boy with curiosity, wondering what could have possibly brought on these questions. "Jamie, you know that Peyton and Lucas love you very much, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay."

Again, silence comes over them as they sit in the park that they had finally walked to. He seemed lost in thought, and she was still trying to figure out what exactly she was supposed to be saying to the boy to make him feel better.

"Brooke, Can I tell you a secret?"

"You can tell me anything, Jamie."

"I'm scared."

"What are you scared about?"

He looks down at his shoes, not wanting to meet the brunette's eyes, "I'm scared that Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton don't want to keep me."

"Why would you think that, Jamie?"

"Because they are going to get married, and then they are going to want to have a baby, and babies make everybody crazy, and then they aren't going to want me anymore because I'm not theirs."

"Jamie, what on earth would give you this idea?"

He shrugs his shoulders again, still looking down at the ground until Brooke puts a finger under his chin to force him to look up at her. "James Lucas Scott, your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton love you very very much... I know that it is hard to think about your mom and your dad leaving, but Lucas and Peyton aren't going to leave you, no matter how many babies they have and if they are married or not. They love you, Jamie. They will _always_ be there for you."

He nods silently, and the pair sit on the park bench for a little while longer before Jamie asks if they can just go home now.

"Yeah, we can go home... why don't we call Lucas and Peyton and see what they want for dinner. We can bring food home for them."

"Okay." he says, his spirits still not lifted.

He remained that way all evening, prompting Peyton to talk to Brooke about anything that he might have said, which obviously led them to their discussion in the park.

"What are we going to do? How are we going to prove to him that we are here for the long haul?"

"I don't know, P. Sawyer. But there is something else going on. It isn't just losing his parents. He's got all these other ideas in his head."

"His doctor keeps saying that he won't talk about it, and keeps telling us that we need to talk to him about Haley and Nathan, but it isn't working. We can tell him stories, and that is fine, and he laughs and smiles about them. When we ask him to tell us a story, he shuts down. When we ask him to try to talk about the accident, he shuts down. It is like he's two totally different kids."

"You've just got to keep at it, Peyton. He needs to know that you guys are here for him. He needs to know that even after you guys get married, that he is going to be a part of your life."

"How do we do that?"

"Ask him." Brooke says, shrugging a shoulder in a gesture that made the statement seem so much more casual that what it entailed.

"You really think that he is just going to come out and talk about it all?"

"I don't know, Peyton. But, maybe he will, and then you'll be all the better."

Lucas, for the first time in a while, spent some time out of the house that evening, opting to help his friend Skills with some film on teams that the high school team was getting ready to face, leaving Jamie and Peyton alone when bed time came. Brooke had already called it a night, claiming that the young boy wore her out.

After brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas, he climbed into bed and called out her name to come tuck him in.

"You ready?" she asks, pulling the covers up around him and sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Yeah..."

"Did you have a lot of fun with Brooke today?"

His face lit up a bit, which made her smile, "Yeah, she's pretty cool."

"Well, don't go stealing my best friend from me all the way... we can share, you know."

"I know." he says, with a little laugh.

"She said that you guys talked a lot. What did you talk about?"

He looks away for a minute, contemplating whether or not to talk to her about the feelings he had. Then, remembering that Dr. V. told him that he needed to talk to Lucas and Peyton just like Brooke said, he decided that it was a good idea.

"After you and Uncle Lucas get married, are you still going to want me?"

"What!... Jamie, of course we're still going to want you!"

They sit for a minute after that, both of them seemingly lost in some thoughts that they had to sort through.

"What would make you think that we wouldn't want you anymore once we got married?"

"Cause you guys are going to have babies, and you want to move into a new house, and you had to leave New York."

"Jamie, we left New York, because you are more important to us. We are still doing what we were doing in New York. We want to get a new house because we thought that it would be good to have a new start since this house has so many different memories of your parents, but we are waiting until you're ready for that." she pauses for a minute, trying to figure out how to address the first issue he stated. "As for babies... your Uncle Lucas and I might want to have a baby of our own some day, but that isn't going to be right away, and that is going to be something that we are going to give a lot of thought to. But even if we have a baby, you are still going to be ours, Jamie. You are very much a part of this family, no matter how big or small it is. Besides, you'd be like a great big brother to whatever addition we decide to bring."

"Yeah, I really wanted to be a big brother." he says, a frown slipping onto his face. "People get crazy with baby stuff, though..."

Putting a finger under his chin, his blue eyes looked up at her for just a moment before letting the tears fall. She pulls him up towards her, letting him cry silent tears for a little while.

"Talk to me Jamie."

"I miss them... and I was really excited to be a big brother."

Peyton had to stop her emotions in that instant, knowing another piece to the puzzle that made it that much harder to have lost the two of them, and understanding even more why Jamie was having an even harder time. "I know you miss them, Jamie, and I know you were excited."

"They were mad at me."

"Jamie, you didn't do anything wrong... we've talked about this. You didn't do anything wrong."

"That's why I wanted to stay up... Daddy said that it was a celebration, but Mama said that I still needed to go to sleep when we got home. She said that even big brothers need sleep. They weren't yelling at each other, they were just being silly. They're always silly. They talk back and forth like they're fighting, but they always smile when they do it. You and Uncle Lucas do that too."

She smiles at that, and then lets her face turn more serious, "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your mom or dad's fault. There was nothing that you could do to help them."

He nods, looking up and meeting her eyes again.

"But you can do something now."

"What?"

"Do you think that your mom and dad would have wanted you to be sad all the time? Would they want you to be mad and think that it was your fault?"

"Probably not."

"That is why your Uncle Lucas and I are here, Jamie. We're here to make sure that you are safe and loved, and most importantly, that you get to grow up and do all the awesome things that I know your mom and dad wanted you to be able to do. It's hard, because it still makes you sad when you think about them, and that's okay..."

"Aunt Peyton?"

"Yeah, Jamie."

"I'm glad that they chose you and Uncle Lucas to take care of me."

"Really?" she asks, still unsure of the boy's feelings toward the whole situation.

"Yeah..." he says, sitting up again to give her a hug.

"Well, I'm glad too...Now, listen...you had a long day with school and Brooke, so I think you need to get some shut-eye."

"Okay." he says, sinking back into the pillows as Peyton tucks him in again, turning off the light.

"Peyton?"

"Yeah, little man..."

"I love you and Uncle Lucas."

"We love you too, Jamie." she says before walking out of his bedroom, moving to their bedroom to change and get ready for bed.

When Luke comes home, he isn't surprised that everyone is in bed, as they have been getting to bed pretty early around there lately. What he was surprised to find was Peyton sitting in the bathroom with tears streaming down her face.

"Why do I keep finding you here? What is it, what happened?" he asks, throwing his bag down on the floor and crouching down to meet her eyes.

"Haley."

"What about Haley?"

"She was pregnant, Luke... they were going to have another baby..."

"How did you...?"

"Jamie."

"He talked to you about it?"

She nods her head, leaning into Lucas' shoulder as he moved to sit next to her against the wall. "He was talking to Brooke today about stuff, and he's so worried that we are going to get married and we're going to leave him. So, I asked him about it, and he feels bad that we gave stuff up for him."

"We didn't... did we?" he says, pausing to look at her, asking the question more of her than of himself.

"No we didn't. I wanted to do this Lucas. I can't see my life with anyone but you now, and Jamie is in that picture."

"Jamie and..."

"Maybe a few others... I haven't really thought that far ahead."

He raises his eyebrows, surprised at that.

"I mean, I've thought about it, but then when this all happened, all I could think about was him... I'm glad that Brooke is so excited about this wedding, because I don't think that I could handle planning anything like this."

"You know that we don't have to get married right away. Hell, we don't even have to have a big wedding."

"Really?" she says, smiling up at him.

"I don't need all of that as long as I've got you..."

"Oh Luke... that's way cheesy, even for you!" she says laughing and he joins her as the mood lightens, "They'd be so upset though...the party, the family, everything. I would feel bad for everyone else."

"Okay..." he says, seeming to be deep in concentration as he stared in front of him.

"What are you thinking in that head of yours Lucas Scott?"

"Ideally, when do you want to get married? Take Jamie and everyone else out of the equation. Just us."

She turns to him, taking his hands in hers as she replies, "Lucas Scott, I'd marry you tomorrow if you asked."

"Okay." he says with a far off look in his face.

"What, okay? What do you mean, okay?"

"We're getting married tomorrow..." he says, standing up and walking away from her to get into the bedroom and pull out his laptop.

"Lucas!" she calls out to him, "We can't!"

He is quiet as she still sits in the bathroom trying to figure out if he was really this crazy or if this was actually something that he wanted to do, or even could do. No. They couldn't do it.

"Crap." she hears a few minutes later from the bathroom and decides that she needs to get back to him.

"What?"

"We can't get married tomorrow."

"Thank you, I thought that you were going crazy."

"What about Friday?" he asks as she steps into the closet to change into her pajamas for the evening.

"Luke..."

"I'm serious, Peyton. For you and me. We haven't done anything selfish in the past two months. Every day, I'm more in love with you than the day before. I am. I know that is as corny as possible, but it's true. We can still have the big reception with our family and our friends, but this can be just you and me."

"And Jamie..."

"Really?"

"If we are doing this, then I want him there. He needs to know that he is a part of this, Lucas."

"You're right... me and you and Jamie. Be selfish with me Peyton. I can't think of anything more that I could want with you."

"Friday?"

"Friday."

"And we don't tell anyone but Jamie?" she says cautiously.

"No one."

"Friday it is."

–

Okay, I thought about it, and I realized that Leyton was really giving up a lot for this, and I wanted them to have something that Jamie would bond with them over. And it would also hold a bit of sentimental value in similarity to another couple that we love. I hope you all don't hate the idea, but yeah. Jamie is going to be having some breakthroughs because of this, so get ready for some more of a ride folks, cause I'm still not done yet! So I guess that the formal wedding will be slow developing, but the actual one... hmmm... maybe not?

Thank you again for all the reviews. They really do mean a lot to me, and some of you are over the top AWESOME, so thanks!

Reviews are cool, and reading is even more cool!


	18. A Day of Secrets

Brooke left two days later, on Thursday, and the two had already done the paperwork necessary for getting their marriage license on that Friday. The more they thought about it, and the longer Brooke was there, the more they wanted this for themselves.

Brooke talked of dresses and cakes and reception halls and the city, and it all just brushed off Peyton's shoulders with the knowledge that this wedding would be just for their family and friends and not really for them. Brooke took her relaxed nature to be just Peyton being Peyton, having never been one for the formalities and frivolous things that come along with weddings.

Friday morning, they woke in each other's arms, as always just as the sun chose to make it's appearance through the blinds in their bedroom.

"So, Peyton Scott, huh?"

"Not until this afternoon..." she says, playfully smacking him across the chest and then sneaking a kiss to his chin.

"Tell me this... does the fun go out of the bedroom once we're married?" he asks, running his hands underneath the covers to trail over her body.

"I don't know, but just in case, we should probably make the most of our last few hours as an engaged couple, shouldn't we?" she says in a mocking serious tone.

"I certainly agree Miss Sawyer."

He leans down to kiss her, placing his body over hers in that seductive way that drove her crazy. Slowly they took away the barriers between them, their breath getting heavy as they continued the dance that they had perfected in these past months.

Of course, nothing was ever perfect, since right when they were about to hit that oh so wonderful moment, the door swung open and a young Jamie Scott entered the room.

"Good morning!" he screams, thinking that he was being funny by waking them up.

Lucas' initial reaction was to drop over Peyton as fast as he could, which caused a slightly embarrassing and not pleasurable moan to escape her mouth.

"What are you guys doing?"

Peyton had started to laugh as Lucas turned his head to face his nephew, "You know what? Jamie why don't you go get some bowls and spoons out and we'll all eat some cereal for breakfast?"

"Okay!" he says, running back out of the room and not questioning anything that he did or did not see.

Peyton, still laughing just started to laugh harder in that moment.

"I'm glad that you think that this is so funny."

"Seriously, Luke? That is the third time that the two of us have been walked in on while we were having sex! And we haven't been together a year! You think someone is trying to tell us something?"

"I don't know, but this totally sucks..." he says, rolling off of her and realizing that the mood was basically gone.

She turned to face him, placing a hand on his chest and kissing him chastely. "Just be glad that you're marrying me... cause I'm pretty sure that what we started will get to have an end at some point..."

"And now?"

"Now, we need to put our pajamas back on and go eat cereal with our nephew, because he is probably going to be coming in here again if we don't get out there soon."

Right on cue, Jamie chose that moment to call out to them to say that the bowls and spoons were ready for their cereal.

As they finished up their cereal, it was time to get into what they were going to do that day, but the couple insisted that it be a surprise to Jamie, partially because they thought he would get a kick out of it being presented as such, and partially because they knew that the longer her knew, the more of a chance there was that someone would find out.

"Jamie, why don't you go get your nice khakis on and a dress shirt?" Peyton asks him after grabbing his bowl and putting it into the dishwasher.

"Why? Where are we going?"

"You'll just have to wait and find out!" Lucas says, picking him up and the pointing him in the direction of his room.

"And you need to go get ready yourself Miss Sawyer, because I know that there is a beautiful dress in that closet just begging to be worn by my beautiful bride."

"Why don't I get ready in our room, and you and Jamie get ready in the other bathroom? That way I can have some mystery with the groom not seeing his bride before the wedding."

"Sounds fine to me. I'll grab my suit and leave you to it."

Of course, leaving her to it meant giving Peyton a good few hours to get herself ready. Which of course meant that the boys had to keep themselves amused by playing yet another round of basketball on the Xbox. Looking at his watch again while they were playing, Lucas told Jamie to go see what was taking her so long.

"Aunt Pey...woah..." he starts, and then stops when he sees her walk into the room. "You look really pretty Aunt Peyton."

"You think so?" she says, bending down to his level.

"Yeah... Uncle Lucas, doesn't she look pretty?"

Lucas presses pause on the game and turns to see the person who had stolen his heart, realizing she would steal it away every single day that she spent with him. The dress was simple, an off white, strapless sundress that fit all of her curves perfectly. A silver chain sat around her neck and her hair fell in long curls past her shoulders.

When he met her eyes for the first time, he knew that she was sending him the same amount of adoration that he was sending her, admiring the person that he chose to spend the rest of his life with.

"Peyton, you look beautiful..."

She blushes, embarrassed that he can make her blush like that with just his words.

"You aren't too bad yourself, Scott."

"You ready for this?"

She just nods, looking down at Jamie, who hadn't said much since she came into the family room.

"Where are we going?"

Lucas picks him up and places him on the kitchen counter, right at eye level for the pair to talk to him.

"Jamie, we want you to keep a very very big secret for us."

"Really?!" he asks, excited already.

"Yup. You, me, and Peyton are the only people that can EVER know about what we are going to go do today... you got it?"

"uh huh... what are we doing?"

"Your Uncle Lucas and I are going to get married."

"I knew that! And Brooke and Grandma Karen and Andy and everybody knows that... that isn't a secret."

"Well we know that you know that part, and that we're going to have our wedding and the party in March, but we decided that we wanted to do something special with just the three of us."

"Okay..." he says, still not understanding what they were doing.

"So, we are going to get married today. And the other wedding is just going to be like a pretend wedding for everyone else to have fun."

"Really? I don't have to go to school?"

"You think you can keep it a secret?" Peyton asks, nodding her head as she does so, and laughing about the fact that he was probably more excited that he didn't have to go to school than getting to see his Aunt and Uncle get married.

"Why does it need to be a secret?"

"Well, because we don't want anyone to be mad that they didn't get to see us get married, and we know that everybody wants to have a big huge party for getting married."

"So then why do you want to have two weddings?"

"Your Uncle Lucas and I just want it to be about the three of us. We are a family now, and we don't need anybody else to know it but us, and we want you to be there because you are a huge part of this family now. The wedding and the party aren't that important, but this is."

"Okay... this is cool... it's like a spy operation."

Lucas laughs, picking him up off the counter and telling him to get into the car. After watching him walk through the door to the garage, he pulls her to him.

"For the record, Peyton Sawyer, you do look absolutely beautiful."

"Well, thank you... are you sure about this whole thing?"

"I am. Are you?" he asks, and she nods in response, "I just hope he doesn't spill the beans, at least until March."

"Yeah, this could be interesting."

"You know what though?"

"Hmm?" she says, turning back to him as she was already on her way to the door.

"Haley and Nathan would have loved this..."

"Why?"

"They basically did the same thing, realizing that what they had was a lot more important than a big party or huge ceremony. And I think that they would be happy that Jamie gets to be a big part of this too."

"You think that if they were still here, we would be doing this?"

He places his hands on her hips, and looks into her eyes then, allowing all his feelings to surface, "I would have proposed soon, without a doubt. I would have probably gotten just as impatient with waiting to marry you. And Brooke would have probably driven you to want to elope eventually anyways."

She laughs, knowing that the last part is totally true if this past week was any indication. "I love you Luke."

"And I love you." he says, kissing her like he didn't get to finish kissing her that morning.

With a door slam, Jamie enters the house again, "Come ON! Don't you want to get married?"

With a laugh in his direction, they left, and a few hours later, Peyton Sawyer became Peyton Scott. No one was to know that they had gotten married, at least no one that they knew. She wore her wedding band on a necklace around her neck, but still proudly wore her engagement ring, which they had engraved with the real wedding date the next morning.

The next few months was filled with wedding planning, mainly by Brooke, and surprisingly Karen, who had grown quite excited herself with the idea of her "baby boy" getting married.

Jamie had stayed true to his word for the most part, but finally letting it slip to Dr. V. in one of their sessions, after Jamie had really started making a lot of progress.

"So, are you getting excited about the wedding that your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton are planning? I know that they must be talking about it a lot."

"No, not really. It doesn't count anyways."

"What do you mean that it doesn't count?" Dr. V. asks, confused at Jamie's words.

Jamie's eyes go wide, realizing that he shouldn't have said what he did. "Nothing."

"Jamie, is there something we need to talk about? I thought that you were excited for them to get married?"

"Uh..." he says, not knowing what he could possibly say next.

"We talked about how even though they are getting married, they still care about you, and you are going to always be safe with them."

"I know!" he says, nodding his head quickly.

"Then what is the problem?"

"You can't tell them that I told you!" Jamie says, leaning in towards the doctor and whispering.

"What did you tell me?" he asks back in a whisper.

"They're already married..."

"If they are already married, then why are they having a wedding?"

"It was their secret wedding. It was just me and Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton... and some old guy."

The doctor laughs, assuming that the "old guy" he was referring to was the judge, "When was this?"

"A few months ago... but you can't tell!"

"Well why can't I tell anyone?" he asks, amused by the situation, but genuinely curious as to what they had been thinking, entrusting this secret to a six year old.

"Because, they said that everyone else wants a big wedding, with a big party, and they just wanted it to be about our family."

"Your family?"

"Me and Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton. So I'm the only other person that knows... It's a big secret, and no one is ever going to know."

"So you are okay with them being married now?"

"Yeah... and I think that mama and daddy would have liked their wedding." he says, bringing up his parents without anyone asking for the first time.

"Why is that?"

"Cause Mama and Daddy had two weddings too... Uncle Lucas said that it was because the first time they got married, it was just because they loved each other so much that they couldn't wait. And the second time was for their friends and family."

"Okay..." he says, sensing that there was more to be added.

"And I like it... because... I know that they loved each other a lot. They made silly jokes at each other all the time and they kissed in the kitchen every morning. I think that's why they loved me so much."

"They did love you a lot Jamie. I didn't know your mom and dad, but I do know that..."

"So, I like that Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton couldn't wait either, because that means that they love each other a lot, just like them."

The timer went off just as he finished, and the doctor couldn't have been happier with the timing of the end of the session, having hit somewhat of a breakthrough with Jamie that day.

When he walked Jamie out, he gave a wave to Lucas and Peyton as he always did, but he felt the urge to poke fun at the situation and called out after them. "Mrs. Scott?"

Peyton turned automatically, not thinking anything of it, and then a look of shock crossed her features. It quickly turned into a smile when she met the eyes of the doctor who was smiling back at them. With a look to Lucas the pair waved goodbye back to the doctor, knowing that the secret was still safe.

As they were walking out the door, Peyton ruffled his hair a little bit, laughing at him as she did, "You had to tell someone, didn't you?"

"I'm only six! What did you expect?!" he says, with an innocent smile on his face.

–

Okay, so I know that this was totally a bunch of fluff, I do. But don't worry, there will eventually be some more drama and some more fluff. I still have some ideas, and hopefully, you guys will get a kick out of some of the things that I've got planned for it! Hope you enjoyed, and keep up the reading and the reviewing!

I appreciate all the time you are taking to read and review this story. It means a lot!


	19. Parents' Day

"So what are you and Luke doing for your anniversary?" Brooke asks the next weekend when she comes to visit and look at wedding cakes, just one of a few things left to do before the three months is up and the wedding was here.

"I don't think that we have anything planned really... we convinced Jamie to start a swimming league, so that has really been keeping us busy."

"Look at you being the soccer mom!" Brooke says, laughing at her friend.

"Yeah, well, swimming, but... the doctor says that Jamie is doing really well, and his nightmares have died down a lot, so we're trying to do everything that we know Nathan and Haley would have wanted him to do."

As Peyton continued to describe all of the things that they had been doing once the school year started, Brooke took the time to take in all that was her best friend. She's known Peyton her whole life, been with her through all the crap that happened to her that shouldn't have happened to one person so young. She had changed though. In the past year, she had changed for the better, finally happy with what she was doing career wise and happy in life thanks to a man that she couldn't have been more happy about as the guy for Peyton. In the past months, it was a totally different story.

They had been best friends since they were Jamie's age, and never had she seen Peyton so happy as when she was with her "family". Unless you knew the situation, you would have thought that Jamie Scott was her very own, and you would have thought that Peyton and Lucas had been married for years. They were so comfortable with each other and all that they did for Jamie was amazing.

Mid rant about something with elementary school field trips, Brooke stopped her. "Peyton..."

Peyton stops for a moment, looking up to meet the eyes of her best friend, "yeah?"

"I don't know if I've told you this lately, but you are doing a great job with Jamie, and you and Luke are already amazing parents. You fit in this, Peyton..."

She doesn't say anything, choosing to digest what her friend said for a moment, then meeting her eyes, and smiling before turning back to the catalog that she was looking through.

Their moment was interrupted at the sound of a door being slammed, a backpack being thrown, and shoes running into the house.

Just a few seconds later the door slammed again, but no voices were heard.

"I better go see what's up." she says and Brooke nods in understanding.

She finds Lucas in the hallway outside Jamie's door, trying to get him to let him in.

"Jamie, you need to open the door."

"I don't want to." he calls from inside the room. "I don't want to talk to you!"

"What happened?" Peyton whispers.

"I don't know, but apparently he flipped out today at school and started tearing up other kids' work in class. I had to go into the principal's office to get him out."

"What?" she asks with eyes wide, almost not believing that Jamie would do such a thing.

"Jamie, it's Aunt Peyton... can I come in?"

"NO!" he screams again through the door.

"Well, one way or another kiddo, you are going to tell us what happened, or we are going to call your teacher to find out exactly what happened, and I can assure you that it will be a lot easier if you just talk to us." Peyton says through the door to him.

"I don't want to."

"Well then I guess you don't want to go out to dinner tonight with Brooke either, cause this is not working, buddy." Lucas says in the same manner.

"Can I talk to Brooke?"

"Are you going to tell her what happened?"

"Yes... I'll tell her what happened."

Brooke, having heard the whole thing from the family room, came into the hallway, stepping past Lucas and Peyton to knock on Jamie's door lightly.

"Jamie, come on buddy, it's Brooke."

He opened the door just a bit to let her inside, and she was quickly ushered into his space, sitting on his bed.

When she looked at him, she could tell that this wasn't just a temper tantrum thrown by a mad kid, but something else. There were some tears left in his eyes, and his lips held a sad pout that she hated knowing the reason for.

"What happened today Jamie?"

"Are you going to get mad at me like Uncle Lucas?"

"How about you tell me what happened, and then I can figure out what I'm going to do with you." she says, poking him in the side to lighten the mood.

"Parents' Day is coming up." he says, not looking up from the spot his eyes were fixated on the floor.

"Oh..."

"And then all the kids were talking about how awesome their parents were and how their parents were going to come in and talk about their cool jobs."

"Well, you know, your mom and dad had some pretty cool jobs... your dad was a basketball star and mom was a great singer. You have nothing to be ashamed of."

"I know, but then my teacher came over and said that if I wanted to, I could bring Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas to parents' day."

Brooke considered this for a moment, "Okay, I know that they aren't your mom and dad, but they could probably tell some pretty cool stories about their jobs and stuff too."

"I know." he says, with that same sad tone.

"I still don't get what the slamming doors and yelling at your Uncle was all about though."

"I got in trouble today."

"For what?"

"I tore up Michael and Sam's papers... they were stupid anyways."

"Jamie!" Brooke says, surprised at the boy.

"They were being mean! They said that it wasn't fair for me to bring Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas, and then they said that I was stupid because it was just supposed to be my mom and dad. And then Sam said something about me not having a mom and dad anyway, and..." he says getting more and more agitated as he talked, letting tears start to flow down his cheeks.

Brooke took him in her arms then, hugging him to her as tight as she could while he cried.

"Shhhh." she whispered in his ear, trying to calm him down. "Jamie, can I tell you something?"

He nods into her shoulder in response, and she begins, "Jamie, I know that you miss your mom and dad, and I know that your Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton can't replace them. But, you have great people around you that love you, and you _do_ have a mom and dad. They can't be here so you can see them, but they are here with you every day."

"But they can't come to school and come to my swim practices and see me play basketball with Skills."

"Yeah, but you do have people that do get to see you do all those things... in fact one of those people was just telling me how much she loves going to your swimming stuff."

"It's not the same."

"I know that, and they know that... but is getting mad at someone else going to make anything better?"

"No."

"Now, what those two boys said and did was not right, but you can't be mean right back at them, because that is not something that your mom and dad or your Uncle and Aunt want you to do. So tomorrow, when you go to school you are going to apologize for what you did, and you are going in early to tell your teacher what those boys said to make you so upset... got it?"

Starting to understand what she was saying, he looked up, and smiled at her, "Yeah, I got it."

"Now, I'm going to go out there and talk to Lucas and Peyton, and then you are going to come out here and you are going to apologize for how you acted when you got picked up."

"Can I just go talk to them?" he asks, standing up and motioning for her to stay where she was.

"If that is what you want to do, then you go for it, buddy."

He nods, walking out the door to see his Uncle and Aunt sitting on the floor in the hallway. He moves over to them, sitting against the wall opposite of them.

"I'm sorry for being bad today at school Uncle Lucas..." he started, and then proceeded to tell them what happened.

When parents' day finally rolled around, Jamie had decided that he wanted his Uncle and Aunt there, but insisted that he did get to talk about his parents, much to their surprise.

"So, I brought my Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas today, because they are like my parents, but I want to tell you about my real mom and dad, even though they are up in heaven and they couldn't come to my parents' day."

A few gasps could be heard from those who didn't know about what had happened to the Scott family, and a few of the moms as well as Jamie's teacher wiped a stray tear as the boy started to talk about his parents.

Holding up a promotional picture of Nathan in his Bobcats uniform, Jamie started with his dad, "This is my dad, Nathan Scott, and he played basketball for the Bobcats in the NBA... he is pretty much the coolest dad ever because he can do things like slam dunks and all that cool stuff. He always took me to the rivercourt to play with him and his friends when he was home, and my Uncle Lucas would play with us when he was home from where he lived in New York. He grew up in Tree Hill, and he and my Uncle Lucas were on the team that won the state championship six years ago, so they are both pretty awesome."

Then, grabbing an old copy of Haley's first CD, he put it into the small CD player he had asked to bring and pressed play. "And this is my mom, Haley James Scott. She was a teacher at Tree Hill High School, but her secret job was that she was a really awesome singer. When she was in high school, she went on a rock tour, and then after she met my Aunt Peyton, she started to record a new album on Aunt Peyton's record label, Red Bedroom Records. My mom was a cheerleader for Tree Hill High and she was best friends with my Uncle Lucas."

Stopping the CD, he looked up at his Aunt and Uncle, who were sitting there with split-your-face grings plastered on and he smiled, "The end."

The parents and students all clapped, and then they spent the rest of the time listening to other student's presentations. Since it was the end of the day, Peyton and Lucas just decided to take their nephew out right before school ended.

Once they were in the car, Jamie was the first one to ask about his speech. "What do you think? Do you think that Mama and daddy liked it?"

"I personally thought that it was the best out of the whole class." Peyton says, smiling back at him.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah! It was great... it had good visuals and you were a wonderful speaker."

"You did a great job Jamie." Lucas says, smiling at him in the rear view mirror as they drove.

Noticing that they were taking a different route home, he asked where they were going.

"Well, since we _knew_ that you were going to do such an awesome job, we thought that you might like to celebrate with your cousin Lily, and grandma Karen is making some dinner, and then later we're all going to go out for ice cream. How does that sound?"

"The Jamie likes that idea...." he says, rubbing his stomach for emphasis.

The two adults chuckle in the front seat, "He has to stop hanging out with Brooke." Peyton says.

A few minutes into the car ride, Jamie shouts from the back seat, "Hey!"

"What's up buddy?" Lucas asks.

"That's the house!"

"What house?"

"Isn't that the house that you and Aunt Peyton wanted to buy?" he asks, pointing out the window as they pass the house.

"uhh... yeah, it is."

"Can we drive by it again?"

"Sure."

Lucas turns the car around, this time stopping in front of the small brick house.

They step out of the car, Jamie leading the way to stand in front of the house for a few moments, "I'm sorry you guys didn't get to get this house. It is pretty cool."

Looking over Jamie's head, Lucas and Peyton share a conversation with their eyes, and Lucas digs into his pockets for something.

"What if I told you that we did get this house?" Luke says, kneeling down next to him and holding out the keys.

"You did?"

"We know that you liked it when you got to see it, and we really liked it, so we thought that we would get it, just in case you changed your mind about moving to a new house."

"hmm..."

"What are you thinking my man??" Lucas asks, patting him on the head.

"Can I see it again?"

He shrugs his shoulders and hands the boy the key to get in, letting him walk up to the door.

Peyton and Lucas held back, staying near the doorway, letting Jamie explore the empty house by himself. After a few minutes, he comes back down the stairs.

"Can I still have the same room I picked out?"

"Yes."

"Can we still move the swingset here?"

"Yes."

"Are we still going to make the whole basement into a video game room?"

"Now, wait a minute... I'm pretty sure that we said that _part _of the basement could be a video game room."

He looks up shyly, with a grin on his face. "Maybe that's what you said."

"and yes, we would still make part of the basement a video game room."

"Okay." he says with finality, turning away from them and walking out the door and back to the car.

"What just happened?" Peyton turns to Lucas and asks.

"I have no idea."

They shake their heads in confusion and make their way to the car, not really wanting to bring up the subject, and waiting for him to mention it, which he did... in the middle of dinner.

"Hey, Lily... did you know that our new house is going to have a video game room?"

"No way!"

"Uh huh, and I have the best bedroom and it has lots of windows and a cool, creepy closet."

Karen raises an eyebrow to Lucas and Peyton, who sat watching Jamie interact with his cousin about the house he was so excited for.

Apparently, he was ready.

–

I know, I know... more fluff. And I really haven't figured out the exact timing of everything, as far as months and everything go. Leyton is about to have been together for a year, and they have been married now for like 3 months, with the wedding being 3 months away. So, I'm thinking that Naley has been gone now for almost half a year.... yeah, that makes sense to me. All right... anyways... hope that you are enjoying it!!

Keep reading and keep reviewing!


	20. Moving Day

The rest of the family was cursing them, well, not out loud, but... they were cursing them in their heads. Who in their right mind would plan on moving the week before their wedding? Who?

Well, Peyton and Lucas knew after that night with Jamie that it was time to venture out on their own, and started the process of getting all of their stuff from the apartment in New York shipped out here. They put Nathan and Haley's place on the market, selling it furnished, but taking the things they felt were important to Jamie and to them.

So the weekend before the week of their wedding, all of their family and friends came to help with the move into the new house. The day dragged on, as any day with hard labor does, but they felt like they had gotten everything moved, just not organized.

"Hey Uncle Lucas?"

"Yeah, Jamie?"

"Is the other house still ours?" he says with a look of apprehension in his face that Peyton saw from across the room.

"The other house is still there and ours, what's up Jamie?" She says, joining them.

"I know that I said that I was ready..."

Lucas and Peyton share another look with each other, not knowing how they were going to navigate this situation at all.

"If you don't want to move, then we don't..." Lucas starts, but is interrupted by his nephew.

"NO! I do want to move, but do you think that we could spend one more night in that house?"

Lucas laughs, rubbing the hair on the top of the boy's head. "All of our furniture is here, Jamie... we don't have anywhere to sleep."

"We can camp out in mama and daddy's room?" he asks, suggesting and asking the question all at the same time.

"That, we can do." Lucas says, grabbing onto his nephew and throwing him over his shoulder to go get his stuff.

"You guys going to be okay?" Karen asks after most of the moving was done and Lucas was off with Jamie packing for their last night in the Naley house, as Brooke had taken to calling it.

"Yeah, I think we'll be okay. This has to be hard for him, you know?"

"It is hard, but you guys are making it easy. He's so excited about the wedding and getting to be a part of this whole new life that it really is making it bearable for him. You're doing great, Peyton."

"Are you sure?"

"That little boy adores you and adores his uncle. I think that Haley and Nathan would be proud of you. And I _know_ that Haley would have been so happy to see you be this mother figure to her little boy. I see it in your eyes Peyton Sawyer, and it is the same look that Haley used to give him... she would appreciate that."

Peyton nods, wiping at her eyes, hoping to keep the tears from falling.

"What is this?" Brooke asks, walking in on the moment.

"It's nothing, it's fine... listen, I hate that we are doing this to you."

"Peyton, I get it. You guys need this night, and I will still be here in the morning, so you can call me whenever. But tomorrow, we celebrate and finish all of this unpacking!"

"Yeah?"

"It should feel like home the first night you guys are here, it wouldn't be right if it wasn't."

"You're right."

So Karen and her clan left, and so did Brooke, leaving the small family on their own, and ready to go back to the old house.

When they walked in, it was Jamie that broke the silence. "It feels weird in here now..."

"Weird bad?" Peyton asks, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"No, just weird different. I really do like our new house."

"But?" Lucas says, kneeling down to his nephew's level.

"I don't know, it's like I'm happy to get a new house and to be there with you guys, but I'm still gonna miss having momma and daddy around... I liked being able to crawl in their room when I didn't feel good, and I liked being around all of our stuff."

"Well, you know that we kept all of the things that you wanted us to keep, and we couldn't have picked everything else out without you."

"I know."

"So..."

"It's just different. I'm not sad really, it's just hard."

Peyton sat down on the floor next to her nephew, "We know that, and I know that your Uncle Lucas has had some good memories in this house too, so you know that you can come talk to us whenever you are feeling upset about any of this, right?"

"Uh huh. You guys tell me that _all _ the time" he says, rolling his eyes.

They both laugh, and Lucas pulls Jamie into a small hug. "Only cause we love you."

"I know" he says, laughing as the adults attempt to tickle him while tackling him to the ground.

After a few minutes of just talking, it's Peyton that stands up, clapping her hands in the process, "All right... let's get to it!!"

"What?" Jamie says, raising an eyebrow in such a way that looks exactly like Haley did when she was questioning anything.

"Well, your Uncle and I had some thoughts about tonight, and we've decided what we should do, in honor of our last night in what Brooke calls the Naley house."

"Okay?" he says, still confused as to what the two had planned.

"Well, what is one thing that you have wanted to do forever, that you were never allowed to do before?"

"Really?!" his eyes light up as he stands up.

"Anything..." Peyton says, with Lucas interjecting, "that doesn't involve smashing in walls or breaking furniture of course."

"You guys are going to do it with me?" he asks.

Peyton and Lucas nod, looking at each other with a little doubt in their eyes.

"Promise?"

They nod again, this time a little less enthusiastically.

"Okay."

With that said, Jamie proceeds to walk to through the kitchen, out onto the patio and jumps into the pool with all of his clothes on.

Surfacing, he screams out to his aunt and uncle, who were still standing beside the pool.

"You promised!!!" he screams laughing.

"We did..." Lucas says.

"Yeah, but Luke--" Peyton starts as Lucas grabs onto her waist and throws the both of them into the pool with Jamie.

They splash around, Jamie and Peyton playing against Lucas in water basketball, winning of course, until Jamie declares that he is a prune.

Once they are dried off, they decide on Pizza in the living room for their last meal, Jamie's choice of course.

"You know, me and daddy always convinced momma to have pizza on Fridays. She started to call them Pizza Fridays because she knew that when she came home, me and daddy were going to tell her that we wanted pizza." Jamie explains, stuffing his face with a slice that was a little to big for him.

"When I was little, my dad and I used to eat frozen pizza all the time... only it probably wasn't as good as your Pizza Friday, cause my dad used to put some really nasty stuff on it." Peyton tells him.

"Like what?" Jamie asks, making a face in her direction.

"bologna, pineapple, hotdogs..."

"Ewwww.... aunt Peyton that's gross!"

"Nah, it was cool."

"What about you Uncle Lucas?"

"Me and your Grandma Karen were really lucky, cause she was an awesome cook. But when I was older, and I was best friends with your mom, we would always have Chili nights."

"Really?"

"Yup. When your mom started working at the cafe, I would come in after school to do my homework and then on her breaks, she would work on hers. Then when Grandma Karen closed the cafe, we would talk about our day and eat our chili. She never told you?"

"I'm pretty sure she probably told me before, but I like hearing it again."

"Good."

After their dinner was done, it was starting to get late, so Jamie was asked what else he wanted to do.

"Nothing... this is good."

"What?" Lucas asks, since they weren't really doing anything since they finished their pizza.

"Can we just sit and talk? Tell stories?"

"Is that what you want?"

He nods and Lucas launches into a story about the first time they ever saw this house and Nathan was so excited about keeping a house in Tree Hill. A few dozen stories later, Jamie had started to doze off so they set up camp in Nathan and Haley's old bedroom, with Jamie settled in between Peyton and Lucas.

"So, this is how it's gonna be?" Lucas asks, as he watches his wife stroke their nephew's hair, not taking her eyes away from his sleeping form.

"What do you mean?" she whispers back.

"The three of us..."

"You okay with that?"

"More than."

"Well, all right then." she says, stopping what she was doing, to lean over and kiss him.

"I love you Peyton, you know that, right?"

"I do..."

"Thank you for marrying me, and thank you for everything that you do with Jamie."

"Lucas, you never have to thank me for that, because as I see it, we were written in the stars a long time ago, so I had no choice in the matter, and neither did you."

"Yeah..."

"You ready for tomorrow?"

"New house.... yeah..."

Then after a few soft "goodnights" they fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, the two adults woke up complaining about their backs after sleeping a whole night on the floor when Jamie sits up, excited and ready to start the unpacking.

"Come on! We have to get the rest of the new house ready!"

"Jamie, can't you give us a minute?" Lucas says, stretching himself out a little bit.

"It isn't my fault that you guys are old..." he says matter-of-factly to his Uncle, who laughs.

"All right, let's get going on this unpacking thing."

They stand up to leave the room, gathering up all their things from the night before, when Jamie turns back to the room for a minute.

Peyton notices, and pushes Lucas out the door, telling Jamie to meet them in the car when he was ready, and knowing that he needed that time to himself.

After a few minutes, Jamie comes out of the house into the garage where Lucas and Peyton were waiting, with a smile on his face. They didn't ask him what he did or said, but they knew that he would be okay after that last night.

When they returned to the house with doughnuts and coffee for all of their helpers they found no one there like they said they would be, so they figured that they might as well get started on their own.

Luke walks in first, letting out an audible gasp when he walks into the house.

"What?" Peyton says, walking in behind him and then pushing past him "Oh my God..."

"This is so cool!" Jamie says, running up to his room to see what was there.

The house was set up perfect. Pictures were hung in the hallway, new and old things mixed together in a perfect way, nicknacks placed with care around the space. It was exactly like they had pictured it would be.

Walking into the kitchen, Peyton found a hand written note from her best friend and read it aloud to Lucas, "Scott family... well almost Scott family, huh.. if she only knew." She starts.

"Right?" Lucas says laughing.

"We knew that this was something that would stress you guys out, which is not something that you should be dealing with right before your wedding. We also knew that you guys needed to have everything just right for that first night home. Chances are we are just rolling ourselves into sleep as you read this, because yes... it did take us that long. We love you guys, and want to give you the day to yourselves in your new home. Karen made a casserole for later and it is in the fridge. I'll be back on Wednesday for a final check on everything for the wedding, so until then... enjoy. Love Brooke."

"You do realize that because of this, we are now forever going to have to move Brooke into any house that she will ever live in?" Lucas says sarcastically.

"That's the perk of having a millionaire as a best friend, because she can pay someone for stuff like that." Peyton says, laughing back at him and turning to wrap her arms around his waist. "It's perfect though, right?"

"It is pretty perfect."

Just then, they were interrupted by the thumping of someone running down the stairs and running into the kitchen.

"My room is AWESOME! There is stuff in there that I didn't even know about!"

"So, are we likin' the new diggs J-Man?" Peyton asks, putting a hand on his head.

"Yup! Except we need to fix up our basement getaway."

"Basement getaway?" Lucas asks.

"That's what we should call it."

"Oh really?"

"It would be pretty awesome, right?"

"Whatever you say Jamie, whatever you say..."

"So, this is ours now, right?"

"It's all ours."

"Sweet." he says, before running back up the stairs and into his bedroom.

They spent the rest of the day moving a few things around and getting used to the new house, finally sitting down for a nice dinner with the casserole that Karen had made. It seemed like everything was fitting into place.

Then, that night, Lucas and Peyton knew that it was all going to be okay, when they heard the small footsteps of their nephew and his quiet whispers asking if he could sleep in there with them.

"Perfect." Lucas whispers before he falls asleep, looking at his nephew sleeping in between him and his wife.

Peyton just nods before closing her eyes and surrendering to the sleep that was trying to come to them.

It was perfect.

–

Okay, now I know that the fluff and stuff is what we are liking, but I'm gonna have some drama coming up here soon, so stay with me folks. To my special friend, you know who you are... talk to you soon I'm sure. To everyone else, thanks for reading and thanks for reviewing. This is a fun one to write, so I'm keeping with it as long as I have the ideas... which I've still got.... lots and lots...


	21. The Big Day

They got through the week and found themselves sleeping in separate houses just a few evenings later, at the insistence of Brooke who thought that tradition still held true of not seeing the bride before the wedding. It was the one time that Lucas and Peyton wanted to spill the beans about their already getting married, but they kept the secret and spent the evening apart for the first time in a very long time.

When it came time for the actual wedding, it was perfect. Larry had come in and gotten to walk his daughter down the aisle, tears were had for all, and everything went off without a hitch thanks to Brooke's party planning genius. The threats that she had on all of the workers probably helped the best of anything though, considering she had hits out on nearly everyone's first born if anything were to happen on her best friend's wedding day.

When the reception came around and the dances were had, it was all that they had wanted it to be, with all of their closest friends and some not so close friends and family dancing the night away.

"This was a good idea, you know." Peyton says, holding onto her husbands hand and whispering into his ear.

"What, getting married? We're pros at that!" he says lightly, making her laugh.

"No, I mean having the big wedding too, I'm glad that everyone got to share this with us."

"Honestly, I'm just surprised that Jamie hadn't let the whole thing slip to someone about what we did."

"His doctor knows, but we're golden for everyone else. And I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited about this whole honeymoon thing."

"It's only a week... I wish I had you alone for more."

"I know, but I don't want to leave Jamie that long, and..."

"You'll miss everybody."

"I will. Does that make me a big dork?"

"No, it just gives me more and more reasons to love you." he says, kissing her lightly on the lips before pulling her onto the dance floor.

After just a few hours, Karen came up to the couple, telling them that there we some final details about the honeymoon that she needed to know about.

"So, I'm dropping him off at the halfway point for his Aunt Vivian's house on Wednesday, right?"

"Yup."

"And you guys are going to pick him up on your way back from the airport?"

"We are..."

"All right, then that is all settled! Are you two having a good time?"

"It is a party by Brooke Davis, of course we are having a good time."

"That girl does know how to throw a party. I'm glad that you two did this though, and I'm sure that you are too."

Lucas looked at his mom with a confused look on his face before asking, "Did you not think that we were going to get married?"

Karen let a small, sly, grin cross her features before answering, "When are you ever going to learn Lucas Scott, that a mother knows everything?"

Peyton and Lucas visibly pale at the words that came out of her mouth before Lucas is sputtering his words out, "Jamie told you?"

"No..." Karen says simply, turning away from them and walking back to Andy and Lily who were dancing with each other.

The two of them turn to each other, still shocked that Karen knew anything about what they had done, and trying to figure out how she could have possibly known about it.

"I didn't tell her." Luke says, throwing his hands up in the air and raising his eyebrows at Peyton, who was pointing a finger in his direction.

"Well, then how did she find out."

He laughs, "I have no idea!"

"Your mom knows things... I don't know how, but she knows everything!" Peyton says, shaking her head and laughing at the situation that they were in.

"Oh No! Did she tell you!?" Brooke says coming out of nowhere to be standing behind them.

"Did she tell us what?" Peyton says, turning back to her best friend.

Her eyes narrow the slightest bit, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, what are you talking about?" Peyton says, challenging her right back.

"The house..."

"We knew that you guys did the--"

"No, the house that I just bought."

"You bought a house? Congratulations Brooke!" Lucas says, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Where did you buy a house?" Peyton asks then.

"Tree Hill." she says quickly, almost like she thought it was going to be a bad surprise.

"WHAT! Brooke, that's GREAT!" Peyton says, grabbing her friend into a hug.

Releasing her, Brooke then goes into a lengthy explanation about why she thought that it was a good idea for her to have a place in Tree Hill.

"What about New York?"

"I'm still going to spend most of my time there, but I need you Peyton. I'm not going to be able to go without seeing you guys! So, when there is down time, I can come here and stay for a few weeks. A little home away from home."

"Brooke..."

"I can't live without you P. Sawyer now Scott..."

The two women pull each other into a hug, both getting a little misty eyed when Jamie comes up to stand beside his uncle.

"What's with them?" he asks, pointing up at the two teary women.

"Girl stuff." Luke says simply to the young boy.

"I don't get it."

"You never will. Come on, let's leave them to it. We've got a dance floor to tear up, and I'm sure that Skills needs help with..." he trails off watching his old friend attempting to woo the ladies with his dance moves, "whatever it is that he's doing."

As Jamie and Lucas go off to enjoy the party, Peyton and Brooke sit down for a bit, with Peyton complaining that her feet are a little sore from all the dancing.

"Well, you two were running around like crazy today, so I don't blame you."

"Yeah."

"So, what were you and Lucas saying about Karen?"

"Oh, nothing!" Peyton says, and then is surprised when Brooke accepts it and moves on to watch her best friend's new family dance around.

"Whatever kids you two have better have your rhythm P., or you are in for somethin' bad."

Peyton laughs as she lets her eyes fall on them as well, "Yeah, my husband doesn't have much rhythm does he?"

"Wow... husband. That's got to be weird."

"Nah... it's like we've been married for months." Peyton says, her eyes sparkling, "So, where is this new house that you got?"

"Oh, you know what? I have to go make sure that they are keeping the desert table stocked up. I wouldn't want someone to not get a chocolate covered something or other."

"Wait." Peyton says with little to no emotion in her voice, watching her best friend stand up from the table. "That was a total diversion. What's up?"

"Don't be mad at me."

"Oh Brooke, in the history of the world, nothing good has ever come out of a conversation starting with those words! What did you do?"

"Nothing. Well. I did something, but it is totally something that I can take back."

"Having sex with someone random at my wedding can not be taken back, Brooke, we've talked about this."

"No! I..."

"Brooke, how bad can it be?"

"I bought the Naley house." She says, ripping of the band-aid as best a she could.

"Well, thanks for jumping." Peyton says sarcastically, shocked at the admission, "You did what?"

"I bought the Naley house."

"Brooke..." she starts, not upset, but not knowing how this conversation should go.

"I just thought that it should stay in the family. I mean, how bad would it be for Jamie to see somebody totally random move into that house and change everything around. I know that you guys have a new place, and I know that is his new home now, I just thought that maybe keeping this around wouldn't be so terrible. He's doing so good right now Peyton, and you guys are doing such a great job with him, I just didn't want it to go to some random people coming in and taking the Naley out of it."

"Can the Naley be taken out of a house?" Peyton says, amusement in her voice.

Brooke laughs, smacking her on the arm, "Not funny... are you mad?"

"No, I'm not mad. In fact, I think that is one of the sweetest things that you have ever done Brooke Davis."

"What are you going to tell Luke and Jamie?"

"Exactly what you just said to me. Only I'm not going to tell them until _after_ we get back from our honeymoon."

"Sounds like a plan." she says, putting her arm around Peyton, and kissing her cheek.

They spent the rest of the night dancing... drinking... dancing... and then a lot more drinking. It was a wedding after all. Somebody had to have some fun.

Their fun went pretty late into the evening, lasting until near one in the morning when Jamie and Lily were found asleep on the bench in the corner and Skills could no longer speak in coherent sentences.

Larry walked over to the slightly tipsy couple and laughed, "You two going to be okay?"

"What?" Peyton says leaning on her husband and swallowing a giggle as she looked at her father.

"I should be glad that I was out to sea for a lot of your teenage years, shouldn't I?"

"Daddy!"

"I'm just kidding." he says, smiling and kissing her on the cheek and then turning to his new son in law, "Lucas, son, you'd better take care of her and my... grandson in law, or I will find you."

"Yes sir." he says seriously, which of course has Peyton in stitches until Karen walks over to them as well.

"Oh boy, are you two going to be all right?"

"I think that they might be a little tipsy." Larry answers for them.

"Well, Brooke mentioned something about a limo taking them to the hotel before their flight in the morning."

"Where is..." Larry starts before his eyes come to rest on Brooke who had fallen asleep on Andy's shoulder as she was talking to him.

"Yeah, I'm wondering if I should be worried." Karen says laughing a little bit herself at the situation.

"According to Peyton, Brooke has had a crush on me since high school, so I'm sure that you're fine. Her heart is already taken."

Karen starts to laugh as she turns back to Lucas and Peyton who had now taken a seat and started whispering sweet things into each other's ear and making each other laugh.

"I'm going to try and find this limo and you keep an eye on our kids?" Larry finally says, shaking his head and turning to walk out of the building in search of the limo.

"Please tell me that you didn't do this at your real wedding?"

"No, we were pretty sober for that one." Lucas says, smiling over at his bride.

"Were you two ever going to tell anyone?"

"Jamie knows, he was there."

"You know what I mean Lucas."

"No, we weren't. We just wanted it to be us for once. Everything was crazy, so we wanted it to be us."

"Don't be mad." Peyton says, sobering up a little bit at the thought that Karen might be dissappointed in the two of them and what they had done.

"I'm not mad at all. I got my wedding. You just have to tell me... how long?"

They look at each other, all the sudden very sober at the thought of telling her just how long the two of them had been married.

It was Lucas who finally said it, "Six Months..."

Karen didn't even turn her head at that, smiling at the wince on her son's face, "I thought four months, so I was close."

"Are you going to tell us how you figured it out?"

She turns to see Larry walking back towards them, and then quickly turns back to her son and daughter in law, "Nope."

"Found the limo!" Larry says triumphantly.

Lucas and Peyton stand up, hugging both parents before starting to walk out towards the limo that was apparently waiting for them.

As Karen and Larry watch their children walk hand in hand to the door, they can't help but smile. They were basically perfect for each other, and both knew it.

"You've got a pretty great son there, you know?"

"And I'm quite fond of your daughter there Mr. Sawyer."

"She lost her mom so young, and I'm glad that you're there for her in that way now."

Karen turns to him, surprised by the comment from a man that she had only met a handful of times.

"She talks about you. She loves all of you so much, and I'm glad that she found that, and she loved Nathan and Haley."

"Did you ever get to meet them?" she asks after the comment.

"No, but that if that little boy of theirs is any indication, I'm sure that they were great people."

"He's a good boy."

"He is."

"He's going to be a handful for the two of them though, you know that right?"

"They'll figure it out, and I'm sure that we won't have to wait too long for another little Scott to be running around."

"We're too young to be grandparents."

"We'll see."

–

Okay, so this was just a little jumping off point. I'm thinking that the next installment will be a little bit of the honeymoon happiness... no raunchiness though... cause that makes me blush. And then the drama shall begin. What do you think is in store for our adorably married Leyton couple? That is for me to know, and you to find out soon. I'm feeling inspired, so maybe I'll update more often. Still working on the other fics as well. Maybe an update for all of them soon!


	22. A Day Across the Pond

"No one can walk in on us here, you know", Lucas says, toying with the buttons on the back of her dress as they walk into their hotel room for that evening.

"Oh, I'm fully aware of that fact Mr. Scott."

"You know it really pays to have friends in high places, because this hotel room is amazing, and that dress is the most beautiful thing that I've ever seen."

"So, the dress was the most beautiful thing, huh?" she says, taking the opportunity to loosen his tie as she glares at him with a twinkle in her eye.

"Peyton, I've been married to you now for six months. And then or today, you could have walked down the aisle to me wearing a paper bag and it wouldn't have made a difference in the world. You still would have made my heart skip a beat when I saw you."

She chooses to let that thought guide her lips to his, taking in the moment between them, and letting them fall into each other so easily.

"You know, I'm glad that we did this right too, you know? I like the wedding night tradition and the idea of a honeymoon." she says, laying her head on his chest.

"Yeah, I definitely like the idea of a honeymoon..." he says, toying with a few strands of her hair that made their way to her cheek.

"Do you think we rushed it?"

"What? Getting married? No. Do you?"

"No... Just making sure that you aren't having second thoughts."

"If I had second thoughts, I would have divorced you months ago." he says, with a playful tone in his voice and his body language suggesting a casual sarcasm that drove her crazy.

She swatted him on his chest and curled back into his waiting embrace as the two of them just stared up at the ceiling, glad to finally be alone together.

"This whole alone thing is nice. I feel like we don't get that anymore, you know?" Peyton says, turning to face him.

"Yeah... you're right."

After a few more minutes of quiet, she was the one to break the silence, "I know that this might be a little late in the game, but we haven't really talked about stuff."

"Like what stuff?"

"You know, the big stuff that you are supposed to talk about before you get married."

"Oh, _that_ stuff. I thought that we had a handle on things."

"Well, we had a handle on things because that is what we needed to do, but what about what we want to do?"

"What we have isn't what you want?" he says, putting a finger under her chin to search her eyes for an explanation of what she meant by that.

"No, it is what I want, but I mean the future. Are we going to stay in Tree Hill? Are you going to just keep writing? What happens if my record label gets bigger? Are --"

"When." he says simply.

"What?"

"When your label gets to be the biggest label in the country."

She laughs, kisses him on the cheek, and corrects herself, "What happens _when_ my record label gets bigger? Are we wanting to fill those rooms upstairs? How are --"

"Yes."

"Luke, you can't keep stopping my line of questioning here. These are important things!"

"That was a pretty big one though, so I thought I should answer you now."

"So..."

"Yes kids, yes to lots of kids."

"Lucas..."

"Don't you realize that our children would be beautiful? With your looks and my brains we'd have Stepford children!" he says with a huge smile on his face.

"So you've been thinking about this."

"We've talked before."

"Yeah, but that was before we had Jamie to think about."

"That doesn't change a thing Peyton, I still want on add onto our family with you."

"Okay."

They lay there for a little longer before he then decides to ask a big question, "When?"

"When for kids?"

"Yeah... you think you could give me a timeline for that?"

"Seriously? We have to map this out on our wedding night?" she says giggling, but in love with the fact that he is interested in this idea.

"You've had six months to get used to being a Scott, so suck it up."

"What if I said that I wasn't ready?"

"I would say, okay."

"Really?"

"Peyton, when we decide to have kids we're going to make sure that both of us want it, and we're going to make sure that Jamie can handle it too."

"I don't want to wait too long, but I still need some time."

He nods, and then gets a devilish smile on his face.

"What?" she asks, matching his smile.

"This is actually a really great idea, us waiting to have kids." he says, and she quirks an eyebrow for him to continue. "That means we get to practice a lot to make sure we're _really_ good at it when the time comes."

"Oh, Lucas, you're such a pig."

"You love me though."

"God help me."

"Hey, Peyton?"

"Yes." she says, as her eyes close while she lays on his chest again.

"You wanna practice for a little while."

All he needs is her smile and he's got his answer.

Hours later, and many practice sessions in, it was time for them to get up and to the airport. Brooke, who was very likely still sleeping off last night's wedding reception had arranged everything about their honeymoon, including someone to come pick up Peyton's dress to have it cleaned and packaged before they got home. Their bags had already been packed and were waiting in the hotel room when they had gotten there, and it seemed that no stone was left unturned.

"I wish we could say goodbye to Jamie before we left."

"I'm sure that he is still sleeping after last night. Skills wore him out."

"That he did" Peyton says with a smiling recalling Skills' dance moves last night.

"So, are we ready to go to Italy Mrs. Scott?"

"Oh, we sure are Mr. Scott."

"You know, I'm glad that we can finally say that out loud.... no more hiding."

He turns to her, kissing her as they make there way out the door for their honeymoon.

When they get to the airport, they are met by two faces that they were sure they wouldn't see for another week.

"You really did think of everything, didn't you best friend?"

"I did... I'm regretting this morning's plan after last night's drinking, but judging by the smile on your face, you're glad I made the effort."

Peyton looked over at Lucas who was giving last minute instructions to his nephew and hugging him goodbye, and then turned back to her best friend and gave her a hug.

"Thank you for this morning, and thank you for everything yesterday too, I'll miss you B. Davis."

"I'll miss you to P. Scott."

Peyton quirked an eyebrow at that, recalling how Brooke had said that she couldn't get used to the fact that her friend was going to be married now.

"It's growing on me already."

Jamie is the next to speak as he turns away from Lucas and hugs his Aunt as hard as he can. "I'm gonna miss you Aunt Peyton."

"I'm going to miss you too, Jamie. I'm sure that you're going to have fun with everyone here though."

"Yeah, but it isn't the same without you guys around." he says, with his head looking down and the slightest of frowns on his face.

"Jamie Scott, don't you start with the pouty face, or I won't be able to get on that plane with your Uncle Lucas. We love you, and we'll miss you."

"Okay." he says, hugging her again with a smile on his face.

As they walk away, Peyton takes one look back before stepping through security to see Jamie and Brooke waving obnoxiously behind the pair.

"You amaze me, you know that?" Lucas says as they sit down on the plane that Brooke had set up for them.

"Well, I'm an amazing person, didn't you know?" she says, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face.

"I just love being reminded every day."

"It's a long flight..." she says after they are finally in the air.

"and whatever shall we do to occupy ourselves?" he replies with a playful tone.

"Honestly?" she asks.

"You want to sleep too?"

They smile at each other and thank the powers that be for someone who understands them completely, and then lay their seats flat and curl into each other as much as they can to settle in for the flight.

Italy was basically the best idea either of them ever had. They said that they just wanted their honeymoon to be about relaxing and taking time for themselves after everything that had happened in this past year. To go from single people playing the bar scene in New York to married with a child that was basically theirs in such a short amount of time was the hardest, most pleasant of surprises for the two of them.

After spending their first few days not leaving the hotel room, Lucas and Peyton thought that it would be wise to actually see some of the beautiful country that they had chosen to spend their time in.

"You would think that we would have gotten over the honeymoon phase by now." she says, laying on top of him still attempting to catch her breath after his chosen method for a wake up call.

"I don't think I'm ever going to be able to get over the honeymoon phase when it comes to you, baby."

"...and what's the fun in that anyways, right?"

"ummmhmmm" he mumbles nodding as he nuzzles into her shoulder, leaving a trail of kisses down her neck.

"Oh no no mister!" She says, pushing her way off of him and covering herself up with the sheets.

"Why not?"

"Lucas Scott, no matter how much you give me those puppy dog eyes, we are actually leaving our hotel room today!"

"But why? Everything that I need is right here... you... me... a bed... the occasional call down to room service." he says, pulling her back to him and placing an alluring kiss to her lips.

"And how do you want to explain to our nephew and your mom why we don't have any pictures of anything in Italy?"

"I love how you don't mention Brooke in that statement."

"Honey, you know Brooke, she would love that we didn't have any pictures to share. In fact, she probably has the hotel room bugged anyway!" she says, laughing at the shocked expression that crosses his face at the suggestion.

Just as he starts to laugh a bit at the thought himself, Peyton's phone rings. Lucas, grabs it from the nightstand and answers it immediately after seeing who was on the other line.

"I swear to God Brooke Davis, if you bugged this hotel room, I am never letting you in the same room as my wife again."

"_What!? What did I do?"_

Peyton smacks him on the chest and directs him to go get his clothes on as she takes the phone away from him.

"Brooke?"

"_How is it? How is everything? Is Italy beautiful? We miss you!"_

"Well, the hotel room is wonderful, so thank you, and we miss you too."

"_And how beautiful is Italy? Is it as gorgeous as I think it is?"_

Peyton doesn't answer her friend, choosing instead to watch her husband pull on his clothing, watching the muscles in his back flex in a way that has her face flush.

"_Peyton?"_

"Huh? Oh! Ummm... Italy is beautiful!"

"_You haven't left the hotel room yet, have you?"_

"Shut up, Brooke."

"_At least I know you're happy..."_

"We're going sightseeing today, I promise, and then I'll e-mail you some pictures tonight maybe, sound good?"

"_You do know that I would totally be okay if you just spent the whole time in the hotel room, right? I am all about extra-curricular activities of the bedroom variety."_

"Oh, I know you are, but I'm pretty sure that Karen and the clan are going to want to see pictures that we take of sightseeing..."

"_You don't think that they want to see the dirty pictures you've taken of the hotel room instead?"_

"No." Peyton says quickly, and then realizes what Brooke would take out of her statement. "And there are no dirty pictures."

"_If that's your story..."_

"Brooke!"

"_I'll talk to you later, have fun sightseeing or whatever you kids call it these days..."_

"Bye."

When she hangs up the phone, Lucas is sitting in the corner with a book, ready to go out for the day. The sun was streaming in through the curtains, hitting him in such a way that made shadows fall in all the right places and the light hit her most favorite features. The fact that he had just picked up a book and started reading was somehow the most sexy thing that she had ever laid eyes on. The fact that it was all hers made it ten times worse.

Feeling her stare, he looks up from his book to catch her watching him. "You done with Brooke?"

She walks over to him, nodding as she does so, and takes the book out of his hands without a word. Pulling on the collar of his shirt, she forces him to stand, pressing up against her in such a way that does them both in.

"Maybe this afternoon is a better idea?" Lucas says as she nods and pulls him back to her.

Honeymoon phase indeed.

–

Okay, that was just a little Leyton honeymoon happiness. The next time we see them will be a month or so down the road, and that's when the drama is going to happen... you betcha... lots of drama. And you might hate me for this one, but I like it... I like it a lot. Then after I'm done with that drama, I'm thinking that I'm going to start a part two... is that okay? Cause I kind of want to start jumping years, and I don't see that being something that I can do in here, so I'm continuing it in a different way. I hope you don't hate me... and get ready for the drama!!


	23. A Came Out of Nowhere Kind of Day

A month later, everything seemed to be going perfectly, with everyone settling into their roles quite easily, seeing as they had already been living them before. Jamie was still as involved as ever, swimming in any league he could swim in and getting ready to end his year and get ready for his second grade year. He was doing well with his doctor who just met with him once a month after they realized that he had really started opening up with everyone about how he was feelings. He was coping well, and had really taken a liking to Lucas and Peyton and their marriage. He was safe and happy, and that was all that the newlywed couple could have hoped for.

They slipped quite easily into this new life together, so nothing had prepared them for what followed a conversation with Haley's sister a few days ago.

"Hello?" Peyton says, picking up her phone before checking to see who it was.

"_Peyton? It's Karen, I need you or Luke to get over here."_

"Is Jamie okay? What's wrong?" she says as she grabs the purse off her desk and starts walking out the door.

"_Jamie is okay, but you've got to get over here...we'll talk when you get here."_

"Okay, I'll call Luke, but I'll be right there."

She made her way to the car while calling Lucas, who was in the middle of basketball practice. He said that he would have Skills cover him and be there as soon as he could.

When she pulled up, nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for her sister-in-law's car in the driveway. At least that's what she calls her. She never knew the woman before Haley and Nathan had passed away, but she figures that's what they would be to each other.

Walking into Karen's house, Jamie was nowhere to be found, and Karen was sitting at the kitchen table seemingly in a glaring contest with Vivian.

"Karen, what's up?"

"Why don't you ask her?" she says, pointing at the woman across from her and standing up to be next to Peyton.

"Vivian?"

"I came to get Jamie." she says simply, without any explanation.

"I didn't know that you were coming to visit. Jamie has swimming in an hour, so he can't do anything tonight...." she says hesitantly, sensing that there was more to her statement than just that.

"It always seems to be an excuse with you, Peyton. You and Lucas have to know everything, and we can't ever see our nephew."

"Vivian, if this is about the other day, you need to drop it. I wasn't about to tell that boy that he could ditch out of school to go to the zoo with his Aunt and Uncle."

"It was one day, Peyton, and the boy is in first grade... how much can he miss."

"That isn't the point. I don't want him to dismiss school like that, and think that he can skip out whenever he wants."

"Even if his Aunt and Uncle were taking him on a special trip?" she says with a look of expectancy on her face, as if she was entitled to everything she desired.

"Vivian, with all due respect, you guys don't live too far away. It isn't like he never sees you."

"Well, that's what I've come to talk to you about."

"What is there to talk about?" Peyton says, raising her eyebrows and putting a hand on her hip.

"Michael and I talked and we think it best if Jamie come stay with us for a while. We are his family."

"Okay, first of all, Lucas and I are his family too, and second... where the hell do you get off telling us what is best for Jamie?" she says evenly, her voice raising as she continued.

"We're getting a lawyer involved, and until then, I would like my nephew to come with me." she says, standing up to face Peyton, and inching closer as her attempt at intimidation.

Peyton recognized the gesture, but was not a woman to be tampered with, "He is not stepping a foot outside this household unless it is with me or Lucas, so you'd better back off."

It was then that Lucas walked through the door, "What's going on here?"

"I came to take Jamie to spend some time with Michael and I."

"Well, he has swimming tonight and school tomorrow, so I'm pretty sure that we can't swing that." he says, and a look of satisfaction crosses Peyton's face, knowing that they were that matched for each other.

"If I don't take him with me tonight, I'll just be coming back with my lawyer in a few days."

Suddenly, Lucas understood why this was so important. She didn't want him for the evening, she wanted him period. "And if you choose to do that, your lawyer will get a chance to meet ours, so you can do whatever you want. Jamie, however, is staying right here." he says, moving to stand next to his wife.

Seeing that she was obviously not going to get her way, the oldest James sister, now Prior, stepped back. "Let me at least say goodbye to him?"

Never taking his eyes off the woman, Lucas calls down the hallway.

"Yeah?"

"Come say goodbye to your Aunt Vivian."

"She said I was going with her tonight." he says, confused at the sudden change from what he was told.

"Well, you've got some things going on tonight and you've got school tomorrow, so we're going to have to reschedule that."

He shrugs his shoulders in a gesture that clearly said that he could care less what he was doing and moves to hugs his Aunt.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Jamie."

"Bye Aunt Vivian."

The cold stare the couple received as she walked out the door was enough to let them know that they were surely in for a fight.

After a restless night, the two still hadn't figured out anything about their situation, but between Brooke and Andy's connections, they had plenty of options where lawyers were concerned. They opted to stick with the lawyer that had dealt with Haley and Nathan's estate, since he clearly knew Haley and Nathan, and understood the situation that would be presented to him.

A few days passed though, and no action was needed, so they assumed that it was over. Until one day when a man came into the TRIC office with papers for Lucas and Peyton Scott.

When she opened the letter, she immediately got into her car and drove over to the high school, where she ran into the gym with a frazzled look that meant nothing less than something terrible.

"That can't be good dude, what'd you do?" Skills said as he saw the blonde running towards them.

"Shut up, Skills." he said before she reached them.

As she shoved the notice at him to read, the color left his face, "Are you kidding me?!"

"They're claiming that you have no rights to Jamie since you are only Nathan's half brother, and they are suggesting that we married so quickly so we could get a piece of the estate." she says, as he continued to read.

"This is bullshit!"

"Luke, what are we going to do?"

"Let's go over to mom and Andy's." he says, placing a hand on the small of her back to guide her out of the gym before turning to address skills, "I need to take care of this."

"Hey you guys need someone, anyone, about this... I been around J-Luke since he was a baby, and I've known you and Haley since we was in fourth grade. Aside from blondie, I know you and that kid better than anyone."

Lucas just nods before turning back to Peyton, and walking out of the gym.

When they reached Karen and Andy's, Peyton was in tears, claiming that she couldn't understand how this could be happening.

"After everything that little boy had to go through, they are going to put him through this? Are you kidding me?!"

"We're going to figure it out, We will..." he says, as they are walking through the door.

Karen was the first to see the pair walk in through the kitchen door, and noticing the tears in Peyton's eyes, she immediately called out for Andy.

"What's wrong?" he says, coming into the room.

"We need your help." Lucas says, handing him the letter that Peyton was given just a few hours ago.

"You've got to be kidding me. They think that the two of you are in a marriage of convenience because you wanted to get at their money?"

"And they are trying to claim that I have no rights, because Nathan was only my half brother."

"That will get easily dismissed in court. You were a presence in Jamie's life more than she was, and you were more a part of their recent past. They named the two of you guardians, and usually that sticks unless it is a non-family member named as guardian."

"We've got Mr. Nash on standby with the situation. He was the one who dealt with the wills."

"I think that you need to still bring in a family court lawyer, Lucas. See if you can get both of them to work together to represent you."

"How are we going to do this?" Peyton says, as if she was ignoring their conversation.

"Peyton, we're going to fix this. It's going to be fine."

"Luke, he's already been through so much."

"That right there, Peyton... the fact that you care so much about that... is why he isn't going to be taken away from us."

She nods, wiping a tear away, and regaining her composure. With that fire back in her eyes, she turns to Andy, "Who do you know, and how fast can we get them?"

One week later, they were sitting in the office of a family lawyer, recommended by Andy to be one of the best in the country.

"Peyton, Lucas, sit down."

"Thank you for meeting with us Mrs. Lindley."

"Andy told me about the situation, so let's dive right in, shall we?" she says, with an air of confidence and a hint of bitchiness that had Lucas and Peyton share a look between the two of them.

"All right, from what I understand, the main thing that they are going to try to prove is that yours is a marriage of convenience, so I need your story. How did you meet, when did you meet, when did you get engaged, and how does that fit in with the Scotts' passing?"

"We met nearly two years ago at a bar in New York."

"We'll leave the bar part out."

"We dated casually, but exclusively for a few months before Peyton came and met my family, including Nathan and Haley."

"So the two of you were involved with them for the year before their accident."

"Yes, we went on a few vacations, they came to New York, and they even came to help us move into our apartment." Peyton says, recalling all the time that they did actually spend together in those short months.

"When did you move in together? How far into the relationship?"

"Six months."

She raises her eyebrows at that as she wrote everything they were saying down onto her notebook.

"What was that?"

"You moved fast. Is there a reason for that?" she asks frankly.

"When you know, you know. Peyton fit into my life so seemlessly, that nothing else made more sense."

She nods again, this time with a smile on her face, "What about the engagement?"

"I asked her to marry me the day we found out we were going to be Jamie's legal guardians." he says and watches her brow furrow, "but my mother and her boyfriend, as well as Haley knew that I was planning on asking her to marry me soon. The ring she's wearing was my mother's from before the man she was going to marry, my Uncle, was killed."

"Okay, and the two of you just got married a month ago?"

They share a look that doesn't go unnoticed by the lawyer, "You didn't get married?"

"We got married, but, it was actually seven months ago."

"Oh, well, I remember Andy talking about your wedding just a month ago."

"We got married six months before our actual wedding... we didn't want to wait, and we wanted Jamie involved, so we haven't told our family and friends yet." Lucas says, and watches as the woman's grin gets wider.

"You couldn't wait? Really?" she says sarcastically, "I would have just stopped the whole wedding if I knew then what I know now."

It was the first time that Lucas and Peyton allowed themselves to laugh at their situation. It was also the first time that they thought the woman had a soul.

She figured this as she laughed with them, "I'm sorry about the ice queen routine. I just wanted to get a feel for you guys first, don't hate me." she says with a full on smile as she reaches out a hand for both of them to shake, "I don't for a second believe that this is a marriage of convenience, and I'm sure that after a little digging, we will find plenty of people to corroborate that statement. As for the gold digger idea, we're going to have to dig a little more to make sure there is nothing that supports the idea."

"Like what?"

"Well... you two just bought a house in Tree Hill, right?"

"Yes, it was from a woman who knew my mother, so we got a really good deal on it."

"And how did you pay for the house?"

"With my savings, and we took out a mortgage." Lucas says, shrugging his shoulders at the question, since that was typically how people bought a house.

"Good."

"Why is that good?"

"Because it is showing that you can provide for yourselves. Now, I've been in contact with Mr. Nash, and he is sending me over all the information with the will and how all that money is being distributed out. I know that this is going to suck, but you'll have to wait a bit while I get all of that in order."

"Okay..." Peyton says, sounding a little more nervous than she would like to be.

"While I'm looking over that, the two of you can send me over anything about your financial statements, as well as any information about trips that you took with Haley and Nathan. And as far as now, I want information about how Jamie is being taken care of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I know that the two of you work, so are you using your own money to provide for him, or are you tapping into the different funds that are available because of your guardianship?"

"Everything has been out of our own personal money. We wouldn't have thought to take anything out of that."

"Keep it that way. I just need information about your lives for the past few months since Nathan and Haley passed and you were in custody of Jamie. Sound okay?"

They nod before standing up and shaking the woman's hand.

"I'm going to figure this out, and I'm going to make sure that boy doesn't go anywhere, okay? You don't have to worry... let me do that part."

–

Okay, so now you see the drama. I will say that the drama, while Jamie related, isn't going to hurt our boy or make him go crazy or anything. I know that some of you are worried about that! I won't do that. For that, you'd have to check out my other fic, Moments Missed. Still have plans in the fingers folks. We'll see how things go for our fabulous Leyton pair and see what comes our way!

Read and Review... and don't hate!!


	24. A Day to Get it All Out

Author's Note: D... this update is so quick just for you!!

--

"She is claiming that you are keeping him from her. Even at the funeral, you asked her to leave." their lawyer says, running through more of the case with them before it would go to court.

"We did ask her to leave, because Jamie had a long, rough day, and broke down a bit at her insistence that he come sit by her."

"And what happened?"

"He ran down the hall to Peyton, and I asked EVERYone to leave. Peyton took Jamie into his parents' room."

"Okay, and what about the other claims?"

"Jamie is an involved boy. He may be young, but he loves the things that he does, so showing up on a whim or calling the night before doesn't fly with us. It upsets his schedule, and we are trying as hard as possible to make sure that he stays consistent with that."

"Can you give an example?"

"She called us a few weeks prior to all of this asking us if she and her husband could take Jamie to the zoo."

"Okay?"

"It would be a Friday afternoon, and he was still in school, so we said no." Lucas tells her like it was the dumbest thing in the world.

"Have there been other times?"

"I don't think so."

Peyton shakes her head to corroborate that claim. "Why is this happening?"

"Peyton, it is my job to ask you all of these questions, because I'm pretty sure that you are going to be asked these things as well."

"I know, and I know that you are trying to help, I'm just confused as to where this is all coming from. I mean, we take good care of Jamie, he's never said a bad word about us. We love him like he's our own, why would they take him away from us?"

"Peyton--" she begins, but is cut off by her secretary buzzing in.

"_You've got someone on line one"_

"I am clearly busy with the Scotts right now, so this can wait."

"_Actually it can't. You need to take the call on line one."_

She apologizes to Lucas and Peyton before walking over to her desk to pick up the phone. All Peyton and Lucas could hear was her side of the conversation, and they could tell that the woman was not pleased with whoever was on the line.

"There is NO legal reason why they should get that."

"No, they don't have to allow that."

"Their names are written on those damn papers!"

"How long?"

"No."

"And I'm telling you that I'm not giving you a week... that's too long."

"A weekend, and that's it, because there is NO legal basis for this whatsoever."

She slams the phone down and stands up a little straighter, seeming to adjust herself for a moment before coming to sit back down.

"I really wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of you being mad, like ever." Lucas says, laughing, as Peyton then turns to smile at him.

However their smiles turned when they noticed that the woman who had quickly become a friend to them was not returning the gesture.

"What is it?" Lucas asks, his eyes growing concerned.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first."

"Well, you're going to tell us both anyways, so why don't you pick?"

"The bad news is that they are going to get to take Jamie for a little while--" she says, standing and putting a hand to Lucas' shoulder as he moves to stand and start the nervous pacing that she found he did when he was angry about a situation. "but the good news is that I fought for them to only get him for a weekend."

"When?" Peyton asks, upset by the turn of events, but knowing that she really can't change anything about it.

"Tomorrow afterschool until Sunday evening."

The two of them nod, not excited at all by the prospect of him being led away. As the looks on their faces grow even more knit in concern and confusion, she decides that is it for the evening.

"You two go home and spend some time with him. Explain what is happening tomorrow, and make sure that he is okay."

They stand and leave for home, not wanting to face the little boy, not even wanting to face this whole situation. It had all been perfect. The three of them had settled into a rhythm. Jamie was doing so well, and Lucas and Peyton were doing better and better every day that passed. They grew more and more in sync with each other and in raising Jamie that they had no clue that anything like this would come to shake them.

When the next day came, they were forced to put on happy faces and smile as Vivian came to pick Jamie up, who was, not surprisingly to Lucas and Peyton protesting the idea.

"I was supposed to go swimming with my shark team tomorrow... why can't I go?"

Vivian didn't answer herself, but looked to Peyton and Lucas to answer the boy's question. They share a look at that, her inability to field the simplest of questions from the little boy.

"Well, you are going to visit your Aunt Vivian and Uncle Michael this weekend, and they live a bit farther out, so you can pick up with that next week."

"But we were going to learn about the butterfly today, and that's like the coolest one!"

Lucas then leans down to talk to his nephew, "You will be flying around that pool in no time, and maybe next week Peyton and I can take you to the pool and show you how to do it."

"You guys don't know how to do stuff like that..." he says, narrowing his eyes at his uncle.

"I'll have you know Jamie Scott that I've swam a few laps in my day. Your mom and I used to go to the pool all the time during the summer."

Jamie lit up at that, which made Lucas smile. However, Vivian, at the mention of her sister got a sour look on her face.

"Lucas, I think it is hardly the time to be bringing that up."

"Why?" Jamie says, turning to her.

Vivian doesn't answer the question, clearly not understanding that talking about Nathan and Haley was something that helped Jamie and them deal with what happened nearly a year ago. Instead, she pats Jamie on the shoulder and leads him towards the door.

"Wait, I've got to hug Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas!"

He runs back to them and wraps his arms around both of them, not understanding the gravity of the situation, and definitely not realizing how upset his aunt and uncle were.

"Don't do anything crazy or really cool when I'm gone okay?" he says with a smile as he looks up at them.

"We will just sit in our bed all day long and watch television and stay in our P.J.s" Peyton says.

"We won't even shower or move!" Lucas adds with a smile.

"Aw, man... see that's cool!" he says, his shoulders slumping as Lucas pushes him towards his aunt and lets them walk out the door.

They watch him pull away, her putting him in the back seat of her SUV as he waved at them.

It wasn't until they were completely out of the driveway that Lucas and Peyton stepped back into the house, turning to look around for a minute before settling on standing across from each other with unreadable looks on their faces.

"And then there were two." Lucas says, trying to make the situation a little easier on them.

She laughs, which was his purpose in that statement, and she walks towards him with her arms out, wanting to have him put his arms around her and wanting to do the same to him.

The stood that way for a while, just breathing with each other, taking in the silence of the house. It hadn't been just the two of them for a while now, and the feeling was an odd one.

"We're twenty four years old, newly married according to everyone else in the world and we are standing here like lost puppy dogs because we are kidless for the first time in nearly a year. What is wrong with this picture."

He laughs a soft laugh that warms her heart in that way that only he can and pushes her away from him so he can search her face for a moment. "It's going to be okay, you know that right?"

"What if he likes them more than us?"

"Really? That's what you think is going to happen?"

"I don't know Luke, it could."

"Nope, it couldn't. Trust me. Vivian and all of Haley's sisters were so quickly out of this town and out of the James house as fast as humanly possible. Didn't you ever notice that Haley didn't talk about them? She rarely tells a tale past when they were in high school."

"That doesn't mean anything, Luke."

"Yes, it does, Peyton, because that kid is the perfect replica of Haley in his heart, and if there is any one word to describe Haley, it's loyalty. He knows who is there for him and who will be there for him. To be honest, I'm surprised that he even recognized Vivian at the funeral, cause she wasn't in his life for the whole year before Nathan and Haley died."

"Then why is she doing this? Why now?"

"I don't know... but we have a big house all to ourselves for the weekend, and we don't have to play chauffeur to our nephew at all, so I think that we should take advantage of the situation."

"Really..." she says, allowing a glimmer to reach her eye that told him she was more than willing to play that game.

While they didn't forget about Jamie, they let themselves enjoy the weekend, taking in a movie with just the two of them, cuddling together on the couch to watch a movie that didn't have superheroes or disney plastered all over it. It was nice.

It was nice until they got the phone call on Saturday night before they went to bed.

"Hello?"

"_Aunt Peyton?"_ he says and his voice sounds just a little bit too scratchy for her liking.

"What's wrong, Jamie?" she says, which has Lucas' full attention as he makes his way over to where she is sitting on the edge of the bed.

"_I don't like it here..."_

"Jamie, honey, what happened?"

"_Aunt Vivian was yelling at me. Uncle Mike told her to stop, but she was still mad."_

"What was she mad about, Jamie?"

"_I was looking at the photo albums."_

"Did you ask before doing that?" Peyton says, sounding just like the mom that she had become.

"_I asked Uncle Mike, and he said it was okay. And then Aunt Vivian came in, and she was mad, and she said that I shouldn't be looking at those because they were going to make me sad."_

"What were the pictures of?"

"_Momma and Aunt Quinn and Aunt Vivian, and Aunt Taylor mostly. There was one from when Momma and Uncle Lucas were little kids though, and she was at his basketball game. That was my favorite one, and she took it away from me. I told her that I wanted to see what Momma was like when she was my age, and she said that it wasn't good for me. Why isn't it good for me?" _he says, not seeming as upset now, but seeming confused as to why his aunt would act in such a way.

"You know Jamie, it is good for you, and I think that Uncle Lucas and I have pictures around here of your mom and dad, and I'm pretty sure that we've got some from the old house that we could show you too. So, you can see some pictures when you come home, okay?"

"_Yeah, okay..."_

"Hey Jamie, are you okay?"

"_Yeah, what did you and Uncle Lucas do today?"_

"We watched a movie together and we ate dinner together and we missed you a little bit."

"_Just a little bit?"_

"Maybe more than that."

There is a pause after that, and Peyton can hear that Vivian had just walked into the room, so she thought that she would let her have a piece of her mind for a moment.

"Hey, Jamie, you best be getting to bed, but can you put your Aunt Vivian on the phone?"

"_Really, I have to go to bed?"_

"Yup, it's way past Jamie time, little man, but your Uncle Lucas and I love you, and we will see you tomorrow."

"_I love you too"_

Then there is a bit of rustling before the phone is passed over to the other woman.

"_You know, I can tell the boy to go to bed just fine without your help."_

"Really? Then why did he call us?"

"_I don't know, but I'm sure that he is going to be fine."_

"Well, he's not going to be fine if you pull another stunt like you did tonight. Don't you think that boy has been through enough that you don't need to go yelling at him?"

"_Oh, so you two are the perfect parents? You never yell?"_

"Oh, we yell, but not about something as stupid as him wanting to look at pictures of his mother."

"_Peyton, I don't know what fantasy world you live in, but his mother, MY sister is dead, and he needs to start getting over that fact. He needs to start realizing that life goes on and he shouldn't be lingering on the past."_

"Vivian, the kid is nearly seven years old. It is perfectly normal to still be curious about his parents. In fact, we want him to talk about Nathan and Haley, because we want him to remember the good things about them, so he can have positive thoughts about what happened."

"_I don't know where you get off acting like you knew my sister at all. You didn't know her. You just came into their lives. Convenient enough of a time for you as well. Don't tell me about my sister or my brother in law. You have not been there all these years."_

"Well, from what I understand, neither have you."

"_Listen..."_

"No, you need to listen. Don't EVER stop him from talking about his parents or finding out more about them, because he has that right. We will see you tomorrow."

"_Fine."_

"And I'm pretty sure that you didn't know your sister at all, because your sister has always valued the people who put family first, who are there. Lucas was there, and dammit, when that boy was in the hospital and when Nathan and Haley were in surgery, it wasn't you there. It wasn't you who had to tell that little boy that he lost both of his parents. It wasn't you who sat with him at night and stroked his hair so he could fall asleep. It wasn't you who crawled into a twin bed in the middle of the night to keep the nightmares away. It was us. Me and Lucas. So don't you tell me anything about having a right to that boy or talking about Nate and Haley, because if you ask me, you're the one who should feel guilty right now."

With that, she hung up, slamming the phone down on the counter and turning to look at her husband, who was still a little speechless from listening to her outburst. When their eyes met though, he instantly put his arms around her, knowing that this was one of those rare moments where Peyton Scott had a meltdown.

It had been a lot to carry around and a lot to face, but the lay it all out there for someone else to hear. To try to get them to understand just what they had gone through was probably one of the hardest things that she had ever done. So, she let herself take a moment to cry, comforted by his hands rubbing circles on her back.

"I know it's going to be okay, but Luke... I'm still scared."

"For you or Jamie?"

"For everything."

–

A little more drama and a pissy Peyton. LOVE it!! She's got some fire to her, and I wanted to make sure that you all saw that again! I'm hoping that you are enjoying this little plot twist, because I'm diggin' it. I'm also liking the fact that the words they are a-flowin', cause I sat down to write this one, and it just came flowing out of me.

So, keep reading, keep reviewing, and thanks!!!


	25. An On That Day

It was three weeks later when they were all forced to sit in a small court room with a judge facing Vivian and Michael and their ass of a lawyer about Jamie. Since it was a smaller domestic issue, no jury was present, but they were able to bring people with them, so Karen and Brooke came, along with Jamie's doctor to support the Scott side of things.

The lawyers got to talk first, representing each side before the judge. They then introduced each of the people in the room, Brooke being a character witness for Peyton and Karen being a character witness for Lucas, but also being someone that the young boy was familiar with.

The judge chose to hear from the doctor first, and let the lawyers present just a few questions for him to answer.

"Doctor, you started seeing Jamie just a few weeks after his parents passed away?"

"Yes, I believe it wasn't that long after their passing."

"And why was Jamie brought to your attention?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Scott had an incident in which Jamie awoke from a nightmare calling out for his parents. He then went about sharing with them a little of what he remembered from the accident and then pushed them away because they weren't his parents."

"Is that normal?"

"Very. When I met Jamie he wouldn't talk about his parents, but with Mr. and Mrs. Scott constantly telling stories about them, something Jamie liked, and providing a safe environment for them, we got him through it. I only see Jamie once a month now."

"Good. And you have heard that the marriage of Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer has come into question as being a marriage of convenience. In your opinion, from your dealings with them, what are your thoughts?"

The doctor took a moment before answering, and Lucas and Peyton took a moment to share a look between each other, not knowing what the man was going to say. "Jamie loves Lucas and Peyton, and he knows and understands a great deal about their relationship. He actually likens them a lot to his own parents, telling me that it comforts him to see them stealing kisses in the kitchen or sharing looks across the room. Their relationship makes him feel safe. And they have made every effort to involve him in it, as well."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They don't do anything without consulting Jamie, and even went so far as to have him be the only witness to their wedding because of their commitment to each other and to the idea of a family."

A confused look crossed Brooke Davis' features, but was quickly replaced with a smile when she realized what that meant. Karen had said once after they had met and started spending some time together and then got engaged that she would be surprised if they could even wait to get married. Now she is betting that they didn't really make that actual wedding date.

That ended the line of questioning from Lucas and Peyton's lawyer to Jamie's doctor, and after clearly seeing that the doctor was on the Scott's side, the other lawyer let him step away.

It went on like this for a few hours, bringing up various people to speak on people's behalf, talking the person up as much as they could, but the judge, while attentive was clearly waiting to hear from the parents to be more than anything.

"Peyton Scott, can you answer some questions for us?" Judge Collins asks, turning in her chair to face Peyton square on, reading her face.

"I would like to begin if I could--" the Alexanders' lawyer started, but stopped when the Judge raised her hand.

"If I may, since I am the one making this decision, I would like to question the next few people." She says, looking around the room and noting the nods from both lawyers before focusing her attention on Peyton.

"Mrs. Scott, when did you meet Jamie Scott?"

"umm... I met him about two months or so after Lucas and I started dating. His mother and I, along with Lucas' sister had spent a day shopping when we went to meet Lucas' family, and ended our day with a family dinner at his mother's house."

"Who was at that dinner?"

"Lucas and I, his mother and her boyfriend, Andy, Haley, Nate, Jamie, and Lucas' sister, Lily." she says, visualizing the table in her head as she spoke.

"And you had just spent the day with Haley Scott, Jamie's mother?"

"Yes, we had met that morning, and Lucas kind of threw us together in hopes that we would get along. Haley saw it as an interview opportunity for her best friend's girlfriend."

The judge smirks at that, completely understanding the idea herself, "Okay, and I assume that you two kept in touch with the family after you went back to live in New York."

"Always... We went on a vacation a few months later, they helped us move into our apartment together, and Haley and I were working on her new album. We had become good friends."

"And what about Jamie?"

"Jamie was Jamie. He's a great kid and we clicked instantly, which I was grateful for. He was so attached to Lucas though, so I think that is what got me my 'in' with him."

"So were you surprised to find out that the two of you were given guardianship of the boy?"

"No. I had expected Jamie to end up with Lucas. The surprise was that Haley and Nathan had put me on the documentation as well, listing me as a Scott."

"And you weren't at the time?"

"We weren't even engaged yet, but Lucas had already told Haley that he was going to ask me, and his mother... so I assume that Haley figured that it would only be a matter of time."

"Now how long have you and Lucas been married?"

She took a deep breath before answering this statement, knowing that it would get a reaction out of her best friend especially. "Nearly nine months."

The lawyer from the other side's outburst overshadowed Brooke's gasp though, as he shouted, "No... they've only been married two months. March twenty seventh of this year."

Judge Collins looked confused for a moment before Peyton clarified the answer she gave, "We got married six months before our actual wedding."

The eyebrows in the room rose a bit at the statement, and the judge had to inquire why.

"Months before the wedding, while we were planning it actually, Jamie had a bit of a breakdown. He was starting to come through with things and with all the wedding planning, we thought that he didn't like the idea of Lucas and I getting married. Lucas was coaching one night and I sat down with Jamie when he was getting into bed and we talked it out. He was worried that we were going to forget him and that we were going to have a baby and leave him..." she stopped for a moment to collect herself before talking again. "The night of the accident, they had been celebrating finding out that Haley was pregnant again. We talked about things, and then I admit that I left that room and I broke down. The thought of everything that they had coming at them and then it all got taken away. I think Lucas found me sobbing in the bathroom that night, and it just came out. Why wait? So we got married a few days later and Jamie was sworn to secrecy. It was the 'family' secret we said, and we're pretty sure that the only person he told was doctor V, so it really is important to him that we shared that."

The judge nodded, turning to face Jamie's other aunt, seemingly done with Peyton for the moment, "And Mrs. Alexander, tell me about Jamie."

"He's such a bright boy, just like his mother, and we have been trying to get to know him better and try to help him through this, but were pushed away by Lucas and Peyton."

"What do you know about your nephew? What does he like to do?"

"He likes to play basketball like his father, and recently he's been into swimming since they got him into a few different leagues. He's good in school, has some good friends that he talks about all the time. His parents would be proud of how he has been dealing with everything. I only wish that I could spend more time with him."

"Okay, and tell me about your relationship with your sister and her husband."

"I didn't know Nathan very well, but Haley and I were very close to each other. All the James girls were close, which you had to be in such a big family."

The judge laughs, nodding her head, "I came from a big family too, so I understand that. What about you two? Do you plan on having other children as well?"

Her eyes glaze over a bit at the mention of other children, but the Judge snaps her out of it by calling her name, "Oh, ummm, I can't actually. I found out not too long ago that I am not able to conceive."

"I see, and I'm sorry for that Mrs. Alexander."

"Thank you." she says, looking down again for a moment, and then looking up to see the Judge focused on Lucas now.

"Lucas, what about the two of you? Are you considering more children?"

"We have talked about it, yes, and decided to wait a bit before trying to have a baby. Peyton wants to make sure that we are settled where we are and we want to make sure that Jamie is okay with the idea of it. We know that he was excited to be a big brother when he found out about Haley, so it could bring up some more insecurities that we need to be prepared for."

"Describe your nephew for me." she says, the request bringing a smile to Lucas' eyes.

"He is the epitome of his mother and father. He has Haley's heart, so kind and loyal, but his spirit is all Nathan's. For a kid his age he is most sensitive to everything, very aware of situations and people's feelings, which is a combination from both of his parents. His smarts come from his mother again, but his athletic obsessions are definitely inherited from his father. He and my sister were born just a day apart from each other, so they both hold a special spot in my heart."

"I'll ask you the same as your wife... were you surprised about the guardianship of your nephew?"

"No. In fact, part of me had been nervous when the lawyer got to that part. I didn't know who else would have taken him, but I was nervous that it wasn't me. And contrary to my wife's reaction, I wasn't at all surprised that Haley would put mine and Peyton's name down. She knew that I was planning on asking Peyton to marry me in the next few months, and Haley has always been the most efficient of people. She probably figured that she might as well do it now rather than change it later"

"Okay," she says, with a nod of finality before turning to the last "parent" in question, Vivian's husband, Michael. "Mr. Alexander, what are your thoughts on this situation."

"Jamie is a good boy, and I did enjoy spending time with my brother in law and sister in law when we could. I think that they were bringing him up to be a great kid, and I'm sure that he is still on that right path. No matter what, I want him to be with family."

The way he said the final statement made the judge realize that was all she was going to get from the man before her, and turning to Lucas and Peyton, she asks, "Is Jamie here today?"

Peyton turns to Karen, who had left Jamie with Andy and Lily outside, "yes, I believe that they are still here." she says after confirming.

"Can you bring him in here please?" she asks sweetly.

Peyton and Lucas both hesitate for a moment before standing up slowly.

It is Peyton of course that turns to the Judge before walking out to get the young boy, "I don't want him to be forced to pick a name. He shouldn't have to testify to any of this."

"He'll be fine, Peyton" Vivian says from her spot, probably more curious to see what the boy would say after spending more time with them while all of this was going on.

"Judge Collins..." Peyton starts after glaring at Vivian from the door.

"I understand your concern Mrs. Scott, but I want to talk to him. You don't have to hear or see anything. He won't be asked to pick anything. In fact, I might not even mention a name. I just want to see who this little boy is, and get to know him."

Satisfied with that answer, they took a short break and went to find where Andy had taken the kids, and then Lucas took a minute to explain to Jamie what was going on before they walked back into the room.

"Jamie Scott?" Judge Collins asks, almost like she was sizing the boy up.

"James Lucas Scott, mam. Are you Judge Collins?"

"Yes, I am. How did you know that?"

"Uncle Lucas said that you wanted to talk to me."

"He did?"

"And he said that I could tell you anything I wanted and I had to answer all your questions."

"Well, that seems good, should we go do that?"

He nods before stealing a quick look back at the adults in the room, namely two adults in the room, which is something that the judge noticed.

When they got into the other room, Jamie took a minute to look around before settling in the chair that the judge pulled out for him.

"So, Jamie, do you understand what all of this is about?"

"Kind of. They keep trying to explain it to me, but it's kind of hard to understand."

"Yeah, it's a lot, but you don't have to worry about anything, okay? We're here to make sure that you are okay."

He nods, scooting down in the chair a bit more.

"So, can you tell me what you did this week?"

"We just finished school, so I went and spent some time with my Aunt Vivian and my Uncle Mike. We went to the museum and we went to the pool a couple times."

"That sounds like a lot of fun, do you like the pool?"

"Oh yeah... I love it so much that I once jumped into the pool with all of my clothes on."

"You did!? Why did you do that?" she asks, laughing at the boys enthusiasm as he shares the story of the last night they had spent at the Naley house.

"What else did you do this week?"

"After I got back from their house, I got to hang out with Uncle Lucas at the rivercourt with the guys and play basketball like him and my dad used to do. I even got to go with Aunt Peyton to her record label and listen to a bunch of CDs of bands that want to be on Aunt Peyton's record label. It was awesome, and there was this one band that was waaay weird and me and Aunt Peyton listened to them like a million times because they sounded like they were robots."

"Sounds really weird.... do you do stuff like that all the time?"

"Yeah, and I'm helping Aunt Peyton produce Momma's album too. She said that even though she's gone, that her music should live on for everyone. I like that."

"That's pretty smart of her to say."

"Yeah, Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas are pretty smart."

"What about your Aunt Vivian and your Uncle Mike?"

"They're smart too, but Aunt Vivian doesn't like me to talk about Momma anymore. I think it makes her sad."

"Well, what happened to your mom and dad is very sad."

"I know, but I like talking about them, and I like it when Grandma Karen and Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton tell me stories about them. Sometimes before I go to bed, I tell Momma and Daddy stories that I think they would like to hear about things that we did that day. Uncle Lucas says that they are looking down on me, so I can talk to them whenever I need to, just like he does to Great Uncle Keith and Peyton does to her mom."

"What stories have you told them about?"

"You can't tell this to them, but I told Momma and Daddy about Aunt Peyton and Uncle Lucas' secret wedding. Now that they're married, I can talk about it, except for to Brooke, cause they say she'll get mad about it. But I told them about it because they would think it was funny."

"I think it's pretty cool, actually. They really wanted to be married, and that's okay, right?"

"Yeah, they are always lovey dovey and silly. They're like Momma and Daddy, cause when they fight, they hug afterwards and if they yell at each other, they're still smiling a lot. Momma and Daddy used to do that too, so it makes me laugh."

"Well, I'm glad, Jamie, that's really good!" she says, standing up from her chair.

"Are we done talking?"

"We are for now, is that okay?"

"Yeah..."

"You don't sound so sure about that Mr. Scott."

"What is going to happen now?"

"Well, I'm going to send you back outside and I'm going to talk to your Uncles and Aunts alone for a few minutes."

"Then can I go home?"

"Sure... where is home?" she asks, casually asking the question.

"I live in Tree Hill with Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton in our new house."

"Do you like the new house?"

"Yeah... we're going to make the basement into a video game room for me an office for Uncle Lucas and a painting studio for Aunt Peyton! And, my new room has a cool, creepy closet, so that's pretty sweet."

She ruffled the boy's hair before gesturing him through the door.

As she sat, everyone in the room held their breath for a moment, waiting for her verdict, which came shortly after she asked everyone except for Lucas, Peyton, Vivian, Michael, and their lawyers to leave the room.

"That is a smart, sweet little boy there, and while I do appreciate both sides of the story, it is clear the choice that is to be made. Before I tell you my final decision, does anyone want to make any closing statements?"

She looked around the room, her eyes meeting those of all the people sitting around her at the moment, noticing how Lucas had grabbed Peyton's hand and how Vivian seemed to relax into her chair as if she knew that she had won. In the eyes, she saw many emotions, ranging from flat out fear and sadness to uncaring and fierceness, which made the choice even easier. No one moved to make a statement after the opportunity was offered.

"All right then, I will tell you a little bit about what I see happening here. Jamie is a very young boy who has been very well cared for since his parent's passing. He has come quite a long way, and I don't want anything to get in the way of that progress. When I pulled him into that room, I chose to ask him about his week, just to tell me about the things that he did. He talked about going to the museum and the pool with you." she says, gesturing towards Michael and Vivian, "and then he talked about going to play basketball on a rivercourt and going to your job with you." she says, now gesturing to Peyton and Lucas.

Smiles came to both parties faces as she mentioned the conversation, allowing themselves to revisit the moments that he had been speaking of.

"However, without mentioning any names, it was clear that his home is with Mr. and Mrs. Scott. His fonder memories since his parents' death involve the two of you, and when he speaks of you, he lights up. You are really what a guardian is supposed to be to that boy. When his parents chose you, they chose you knowing that the two of you would be the most like them in their absence, so I do not go against that choice. So, I hereby grant sole legal custody of James Lucas Scott to Peyton and Lucas Scott."

Vivian makes a move to stand, but her motion is met by her husband reaching out to steady her shoulder and force her to stay down.

"Now, with that said, I still think that it is important for Jamie to have all of his family in his life, so I do recommend that the Scott's allow visits from the Alexanders, but am not granting any such arrangement by law. I trust that you will make the best of judgements for this child."

"He's ours" Lucas says after the judge leaves the room, turning to Peyton with a smile that reached his eyes.

"That he is."

"So, what are you thinking?" he asks her.

"I'm thinking that you and I have come a long way from that night Lucas Scott."

"The beginning?"

She just nods, smiling and pulling him close to her.

"Who knew?"

She laughs at the comment, dragging him with her outside to a waiting family, who, upon hearing the news were beside themselves with happiness at the outcome.

He was right though. Who knew that a relationship that began one night after an innocent conversation with a stranger could lead them here? Again... it wasn't love at first sight, but it was definitely something.

–

Okay... the END!!!

But don't freak out on me okay? Because I can't see this version of Lucas and Peyton ending like this, so I'm going to start a new fic, which I already have part of written in my head. It is going to be written as a through the years kind of fic, not filling in all the details necessarily and jumping around a few years here and there... so be on the look out for the sequel to "It Began One Night" entitled "...And it Lasted Through the Years."

Read and Review... let me know anything you want in the sequel!!!


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